Ashiteru Matsudai
by Shimmersea
Summary: Ever since she went blind, Serenity Wheeler has been distant and separated from the world. Can a certain CEO turn her around? REPOST, FINISHED.
1. Disclaimer

Ashiteru Matsudai  
  
Rated: PG-13 for some cursing and mild mentionings of sexual topics.  
  
By Shimmersea  
  
Beta Reader: Lady Silver Dragon (WHY ELSE IS IT ON THIS ACCOUNT?!)  
  
_.-*-._.-*-._.-*-._  
  
Shimmie: Hi!  
  
Silvie: ...Why am I here? I'm only the beta reader!  
  
Shimmie: ^^;; Ehhhhh... Beta Reader means proofer... She's like my editor...  
  
Silvie: Grrr.  
  
Shimmie: She's also not in a good mood.  
  
Silvie: *turns into a giant dragon* ROAR!  
  
Shimmie: u_u;;  
  
Silvie: Can we DO what we are here to DO now?  
  
Shimmie: Eh? Oh, yeah, okay.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. I don't not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters mentioned in this fic. But we do own Ankh. And Sarah. Silvie's OC's.  
  
Silvie: WHA HA HA! YOU HAVE NO ORIGINALITY!  
  
Shimmie: *Offended* Do so! I drink Dr. Pepper every morning!  
  
Silvie: u_u;;  
  
Shimmie: P To you. Some beta reader you are, forcing me to insert your OC's.  
  
Silvie: UH!  
  
Shimmie: Ah!  
  
Silvie: Ooh!  
  
Shimmie: Too!  
  
TO BE CONTINUED!  
  
Silvie: Ehhhhhhh? Where the fuck is the stupid fic?  
  
Shimmie: Stupid, this is just the disclaimer!  
  
Silvie: Sounds like a 'tick readers off so they won't read your fic' method to me.  
  
Shimmie: Do you really think so?!  
  
Silvie: I wouldn't have said it if I didn't, now would I?  
  
Shimmie: ...WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! *Runs away crying*  
  
Silvie: *Twitches* Suddenly... Feel... RANDOM! This is the song that never ends, it goes on and on my friends - 


	2. Blindsighted

Ashiteru Matsudai Chapter One: Blind-sighted  
  
***  
  
Shimmie: HI!  
  
Kirby: *Winks* Hello, all.  
  
Yoshi: Is it just me, or were we not in the DI at all?  
  
Shimmie: *Shrugs* I didn't really see the point.  
  
Muses: #u_u You didn't just say that, DID YOU!?  
  
Shimmie: Huh?  
  
Myth: Like, totally! ^_______________^ *She's yellow*  
  
Shimmie: Yawn. Okay, to the ficcy!  
  
Silvie: *still singing* THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND, ROUND AND ROUND!  
  
***  
  
Serenity Wheeler, second to her brother Joey Wheeler, was a has-been. A nobody. Sure, she was nice. Pretty, kind, patient, loving, sweet, and understanding.  
  
She had lighter skin then her brother, and long, elbow length auburn hair. But it could have been very well green: Her blue eyes were clouded and unfocused: Always looking out into her own, secluded world. She was blind, and this was her critical- and most fatal- flaw.  
  
Her brother, faithful but blunt, tried and failed to get the money needed to put Serenity into surgery. So slowly, but surely, her vision failed, faded, and eventually disappeared.  
  
:::I wanted to see you one last time before. It happened. But now I guess I just won't get the chance....:::  
  
She sat on an old ragged couch that was overstuffed. It pulled out into a lumpy bed, but she had another room that she slept in. At her side was a table right at her reach. On it was a laptop, which was old and had a crack in the screen and the 'F8' key was missing. But she typed her notes on it well enough. Who needs the F*8 key anyway? There was a stack of plastic card holders (bound carefully in a binder), which held Duel Monster Cards. And around her neck was the oddest looking twisted cross, but with a loop on the top and a jagged edge of a key at the end, made of pure gold.  
  
She had received this twisted cross, or Ankh as she called it, just a few days before she went blind...  
  
:::Serenity could barely see the man before her; he was mostly a tan and white haze, with a huge gold blotch on his torso.  
  
"So, little Healer," he had said, his voice thickly accented in a way she couldn't recognize. "You have been born again... It is a pleasure to meet you once more."  
  
"I... I don't understand," she had stuttered, squinting, trying to see her visitor.  
  
"It is the will of the Pharaoh that this has come to pass," he told her, in that odd voice of his. "You need not understand little Healer; this is Fate's will, and we are not ones to stop it." He then moved, his clothing rustling. The gold blotch on his chest disappeared. He reached over her, and placed something heavy around her neck. Her fingers immediately went to examining it, getting the feel of it... It felt hummed beneath her fingertips, it was warm and ALIVE.  
  
"I can't take this," she whispered, feeling the intricate work on its surface.  
  
"No. The Millennium Ankh was never mine to hold. It is yours, and yous alone. May you wield it well, little Healer." And with that, he stood up, and if Serenity hadn't known her eyesight was bad, she would have said that her mysterious visitor had sunk into the ground...:::  
  
She lived with her mother, a sad and lonely life (her depression had even seeped into Ankh, making her yami a bit lack-luster and worse for the wear), seeing as her mother had to have three part time jobs just to support her. At first she was all alone, left to stumble around the house (she refused to let Ankh help her). She usually was on the porch, and there took messages for people who came to see her mother when she wasn't there, which was most of the day and all of the night.  
  
Well... Things were never boring with Ankh around... Her self-declared "Spirit of the Millennium Ankh, Healer to the Pharaoh, aibou to Serenity Wheeler" was truly her best friend... Although it was quite annoying when she took over, it confused a lot of people when her eyes suddenly snapped into focus and she became the determined person Ankh was... It has even frightened her brother at first.  
  
Her brother... Speaking of him sometimes made her angry, thinking he couldn't get the money for her operation. But her brother managed to get enough money to present her with a gift: A small, yet caring display. It was a seeing-eye dog, a young, spirited Golden Retriever. Serenity named it Sakura. Ankh adored Sakura as much as Serenity did, and whenever she had enough energy to spare for a physical form, most of her time would be spent petting the sweet dog, and describing things for Serenity.  
  
Still, Serenity's life was slow. On a usual day, she would type two notes on her brailed laptop for her mother, pet Sakura, and read some of the only brailed book she had: Gone with the Wind. Serenity always hoped someone would come and be witty and charming to her, so she could fall desperately in love. But Serenity knew this was not possible.  
  
On rare occasions, she got a long distance phone call from her brother. Why long distance, you ask? Serenity lived with her mother in America (They lived in New York, New York to be exact, on the fringes of the great city in a slightly dilapidated flat), and they never had gotten enough money to go back to Domino. Anyways, she would grope around for their old and used phone her mother had gotten from the good will, making the call even harder.  
  
"Joey?" she said, too softly for him to hear her.  
  
//Speak up aibou!// Ankh would tell her. //You can't just let your blindness take over your life!//  
  
"What was that, Seren?" Joey yelled, and a sudden wave of interference buzzed in her ear.  
  
"JOEY?" She tried again, this time a little too loud.  
  
"You don't have to-" Fuzz, blur, interference... "-yell, Seren."  
  
And this was how most of her conversations went.  
  
She loved her brother very much, and missed him dearly. She never saw him... Or, heard him... And when she did get a phone call, it was only about five minutes long. She was grieving silently for her brother, but kept a sunny expression for her sad, tired, and defeated mother to come home to.  
  
/I wish I could see Sakura for myself.../ she would tell Ankh, who would make soothing mental sounds, and give her a hug.  
  
//Please, if we melded our minds, you could see again!// Ankh would beg. But Serenity would have no part of it; she wanted to stay as Serenity, and she didn't like the idea of Ankh guiding her thoughts. Even. Even if they were two halves of the same soul, Serenity didn't want to lose her individual self...  
  
Serenity never complained, whined, or was frustrated with her sight... Or lack thereof. Sometimes it bothered her mother that she could be so gleeful about this.  
  
The only time she showed depression was when she thought about not being able to draw. She always had loved to paint, draw, sketch... Anything to do with art. And she was quite efficient at it, too. It was sad that the world had lost Serenity's sense of art when she lost her sight.  
  
Serenity also typed long, sad stories and poems on her laptop, which no one was ever able to see (Not even Ankh; Serenity would close off her mind when she wrote these. But Ankh never minded; she respected her aibou's privacy.). This was because she wasn't willing to show it to anyone: Once she had written it, she couldn't see it to fix errors, so no matter the quality of her work, it never could be fixed properly because she was unable to see the errors.  
  
She suggested to her mother once a system where you spoke into a microphone, and the words you spoke were placed on the computers screen. It would tell you if there were errors, and it sounded to be perfectly wonderful to Serenity.  
  
Her mother sighed, and told her how much one of these complicated systems cost. Serenity nodded, and never spoke to her mother of such things again.  
  
Her seeing-eye dog, Sakura, was extremely helpful. Serenity could tell her to get the door, get her a drink, call the police... Many helpful things (Even though Serenity's life was so uneventful she barely needed Sakura for anything but a comforting companion). But most of all, the dog helped Serenity to walk, to go out to places.  
  
This was the only way Serenity went out and about. Serenity tried to hear people when they were coming, but hadn't the skills to complete this. Even with her long, thin cane with a crest declaring her blind she would often be run into by someone in a hurry.  
  
Then they would notice her to be blind, and flood out apologies. "I didn't see you," or "I was in such a hurry" or "So sorry, young miss" or something else, dripping with sympathy and pity and compassion. Above all, Serenity despised it when people felt sorry for her and treated her as if she were a child. But she took it in stride.  
  
Above else, she was lonely. Her mother was barely home, and when she was, Serenity would be asleep. Her brother rarely called, and the only visitors were usually to see her mother about baby-sitting. She was visited by some people who felt reverence in doing so, some who felt like talking to "the poor blind girl" was helpful to God, some felt pity for her, and others were just do-gooders who did the same with all shut-in people.  
  
When she was visited, she tended to turn the conversation to two things: One of which being her brother being a duelist. She would tell them of Duels he'd won, and of the Duels his friends, Yugi, Tristen, Mai, Tea, and others had won. She talk and talk, and show them her own collection of cards.  
  
It was a very good collection, too. Her mother should sell it, some said, to send Serenity to college. But her Serenity could not part with her deck. In it was a card Joey had given her, 'Baby Red Eyes Black Dragon' which she adored, and was very powerful. Yugi had given her a 'Dark Magician Girl', and she had taken them all with a happiness that Ankh delighted in seeing. Her most prized card was her own, very special, 'Blue Eyes White Dragon'.  
  
No one knew exactly how Serenity had gotten this card: There were four, three owned by Seto Kiaba and the other destroyed. But she had one, and it was authenticated. She loved this card desperately.  
  
The second thing of which she loved to talk was of what was happening in the town. She would pry and pry until the told her everything, or at least enough to satisfy her.  
  
She kept basically all feelings within herself, and this scared her mother. But when confronted, Serenity denied doing this. Her mother thought she would commit suicide, but for the love of her brother, her yami, and her worn mother, she never considered this. But her mother knew it was only a matter of time before she disappeared completely.  
  
It was like she lived in her own little world, with only her dog Sakura by her side. And when she had left, everyone knew no amount of coaxing would bring her out.  
  
***  
  
"Yug, I'm never gonna have enough!" a defeated Joey Wheeler exclaimed, throwing down his bills in disgust. His friend, Yugi Motou sighed. Joey had been frustrated, and been working to a thin trying to get enough money to get even a third class ticket to America, to see his sister, Serenity.  
  
"Maybe your Mom can help out," Tea suggested. Joey snorted in disgust, not liking his own mother.  
  
"Do you really think da bitch dat took her away from me would actually help?" Joey said angrily.  
  
"Smooth your ruffled feathers, papa robin," Mai joked. "If what Seren told me on the phone is true, the old hag's too poor to even attempt to contribute." She went to the kitchen, laughing.  
  
"AURGH!" Joey yelled, pounding his fist on the table. Yugi jumped up, afraid the old, used table would break from the outburst from his friend. It did not, so Yugi sat back down.  
  
Mai, Tea, Tristan, Ryou, himself, and Joey had all pooled, but they were still about 50000 yen short. This was very frustrating to poor Joey, and Yugi was feeling the tension.  
  
"Maybe you can go next year!" Yugi said, trying to be cheerful.  
  
"I have to go there THIS year!" Joey said despairingly. "What if she forgets what I look like?" Tea coughed, and Joey blushed at his mistake. He still felt horrible about not being able to get the money for his sisters surgery, and this sudden reminder was of no help to his dampened mood.  
  
"Cheer up!" Ryou said cheerfully, taking a drink of his beverage. "I'm sure it will be fine." He got a listening look on his face, and they could all just hear the remark the sweet boy's yami had made. Soon the look was off his face and the white-haired boy sighed.  
  
"You haven't heard her voice! It sounds so hollow, like she's not really there... I need to see her!" Joey said, running a hand through naturally messed up hair (which got even messier). "I have to."  
  
"Joey, there's no way you are going this month, unless you win the lottery," Mai purred lazily, draping herself across a used armchair. Her purple eyes danced around the room, and she chuckled to herself. "And I would say your luck isn't that great."  
  
Joey looked about to explode when Mai burst out laughing at her own joke. She certainly wasn't helping.  
  
"Come on, Joey. We'll take it by ear, kay?" Yugi said, desperately trying to keep his friend from lunging at Mai's throat. Joey gave Mai another seething look before moaning in defeat.  
  
***  
  
Once Joey had gone to bed, and Tea and Tristan had taken a 'leave of absence' this left Yugi, Ryou, and Mai to ponder.  
  
"Maybe I could get Yami to... Uh..." Yugi knew not how to continue, and Mai laughed.  
  
"The pharaoh? I seriously doubt that he'd go and rob people just for Joey. They aren't THAT good of friends."  
  
The flicker in Yugi's face meant that now Mai had Yami to deal with.  
  
"While we are on the topic, Mai, why don't you go rob the local supermarket?"  
  
While this was all going on, Ryou had a "listening" look on his face, and they all knew that Bakura had just made a disparaging comment.  
  
"Yami says he's not going to steal anything, so don't even think of asking." Ryou said sheepishly, "Or he'll do something I won't mention... He suggests going to talk to Kaiba though."  
  
"Piffle," Mai said angrily. "Kaiba's too high-strung to even care."  
  
As Yami flickered back to Yugi, he nodded, though he was not in total agreement. Tomorrow after school he would just have to visit the Kaiba brothers.  
  
***  
  
Yugi felt nervous, but he was certain this was the only way to keep Joey from murdering someone. He raised his hand, and knocked on the door. After about five minutes of waiting, Mokuba appeared.  
  
"Hey Yugi!" Mokuba said brightly, glad to see his friend. "Or is it Yami? I never can tell."  
  
"Hi, Mokuba!" Yugi replied, return Mokuba's enthusiasm with a grin. "I'm Yugi right now. Can I see Kaiba?"  
  
"Seto?" Mokuba said, referring to his honored older brother by his given name, "He's... Busy." The boy shuffled his feet nervously, and fiddled with the locket around his neck a bit.  
  
"Busy?" Yugi said, confused. He had gotten through the gates and the long driveway just to be refused? Now that wasn't fair.  
  
"Uh-huh." Mokuba grinned sheepishly. "I accidentally deleted a report that took him three months to finish.He's kinda mad to say the least, with his trip to America coming up." America? Yugi already liked the odds, somehow... A sudden flicker in his face told Mokuba he was now talking to Yami. He could tell if he looked really hard, but he usually didn't.  
  
"Tell him..." Yami said, as if considering the most dramatic way to put his thoughts into words, "It's a matter of life or death."  
  
Mokuba looked confused momentarily, then opened his mouth and yelled loudly:  
  
"NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII- SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"  
  
***  
  
"First of all," Kaiba said, finally sitting down from his first reaction (Which, by the way had been throwing bronze statuettes in Yami's general direction. But he had SHADI aim-  
  
((A/N (Author Note): Get it? SHADI aim? Shadi as in the guy with weird earrings and gives out Millennium Items? *Silence* You don't get it, do you... Weep Weep.))  
  
Making things fly about the room instead of hitting the desired target. But one bronze statue found its location: And it had hurt. So Yami was now in the same mood as Kaiba.) "What DO you want?"  
  
Yugi had spilt to play Digimon- Or something similar- Yami hadn't the care to find out anyway- with Mokuba.  
  
"No way! My Typhlosion could have beaten you, HANDS DOWN!" Mokuba said sulkily, throwing out his best jaded look. Yugi grinned, and patted him on the back.  
  
"I just got a lucky strike with my thunder. Don't worry about it." Yami knew this was not just coincidence (Yami being the King of Games and it rubbed off on Yugi a bit) but decided not to bother.  
  
"Joey is short on enough money to go see his sister in America. I wondered if you could loan me the money-" Yami began, but Kaiba interrupted him, and Yami hates to be interrupted.  
  
"Me? Loan money to the dog? I would never stoop so low," Kaiba said with a sneer.  
  
Yami, feeling very angry, brought out his final card (In a matter of speaking).  
  
"Blue eyes ((A/N (Author's Note): Hee, get it? Blue Eyes! As in Blue-Eyes White Dragon? And Seto's eyes are blue!)), in case you DIDN'T remember, you OWE me. Big time. More than once." With this Yami smirked, knowing this iced the cake. But Mokuba and Yugi forgot their Megaman battle and were now crouching under the table, as if expecting a huge storm to strike. Yami blinked, and then noticed that Kaiba's fists were clenched, and his left eyebrow was twitching... Not a good sign. Nope; he should have just let that sleeping dragon lie... The stressed out teenage CEO's mood meter had immediately swung from mildly irked to full blown Pissed Off.  
  
"HOW DARE YOU BRING THAT UP?!?!" Kaiba roared. If he had been having a bad day, this made it dramatically worse. Again Yami was showered by random items.  
  
What's up HIS ass? Yami wondered.  
  
/Yami!/ Yugi cried unhappily through their link, having picked it up from his thoughts.  
  
"Calm down big brother!" Mokuba yelled over the crashes of priceless vases and destruction of expensive statues. Kaiba soon finished hurling things at Yami long enough for Yugi to creep up behind his yami (Named Yami! ^____________^) and jump on his back. Quickly covering the pharaoh's mouth, Yugi grinned at the Kaiba bros.  
  
"Hee... Yami's not having the best day," Yugi said sheepishly, and gave a short laugh. "What we mean is... We could really use you help. I mean, if what Joey says is correct, his sister is very depressed. Usually this wouldn't be the reason to fly to America, but she's also... Ahem, blind-" Yugi said this as if it were a curse no one was bad enough to utter upon. "And he's afraid this could lead to something... Uh, really bad."  
  
Kaiba looked very bored.  
  
"So what your saying is that the lap dog thinks his sister is suicidal." Kaiba drawled, as his eyebrow rose so high it touched his hairline.  
  
"Eh- No... Not exactly..." Yugi stuttered, and again broke out in an embarrassed laugh. Yami was torked off about A.) Having a short look-a-like of him attached to his back B.) Being gagged (In a way) by his aibou C.) The statue thingy had dented his hair!  
  
Mokuba felt bad for Joey's sister, even though he knew his big brother despised Joey himself. Maybe it was because he liked Yugi and wanted to do a favor for him, or maybe it was because...Well, he had never seen a blind person before. So he, stupidly, spoke up.  
  
"Where does... Joey's sister live?" he asked, and watched as Kaiba's uplifted eyebrow go down and the other rise up.  
  
"Serenity? She lives in New York." Yugi said, trying desperately not to fall off his tall yami, who was trying to shake him off. Yugi, though, had a pretty good hold for such a shortie.  
  
"H-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-y!" Mokuba said, taking as long as possible to drag out the 'hey'. "Me'n Nii-sama are going to New York!"  
  
"What?" Yugi said, not catching on. What did Mokuba and Kaiba going to New York have anything to do with Serenity?  
  
"Yeah!" Mokuba said, grinning like he was just given a medal. "We can go see her while we are there!"  
  
"Really?" Yugi said happily. Kaiba looked utterly confused and angry at the same time, and in a mix of these two things was unable to speak. Yugi trilled off the address and phone number, and thanked both Mokuba and Kaiba before Kaiba could change his mind. Then, dragging his yami named Yami along with him, Yugi went home, and he was so happy he could sing. So he did. Yami was thuroughly and totally embaressed, but that's another fic, so we won't go into that.  
  
"Alright!" Mokuba said, punching the air. "I've never seen a blind person before!" And if looks could kill, Kaiba's stare would have burried Mokuba long ago... In loving memory, of course.  
  
***  
  
^____________________________________________________________^  
  
Hi! This is just a sample of my ficcy-wiccy. I'd really like it if thou would review, 'kay? And I usually read my reviewers fics! And review! HINT HINT SHOVE SHOVE WINK WINK! 


	3. On the Road Again

Ashiteru Matsudai  
  
Chapter Two: On the Road Again  
  
***  
  
Shimmie: REVIEWS! I GOT REVIEWS! YAH!  
  
To Sweet Cappucino: ^__________^ Thank you. You were my first reviewer! Duuuude!  
  
To Neko Moon Goddess: ...Is it now? ^-^ Thankies.  
  
To Firefly of Hell: Yeah, well, I can take cunstructive critism. It should get better this chappie! A lot of Mokuba cuteness.  
  
To Setine: Whoa. You wrote the longest review I have ever recived. 0_o So long... So very... LONG. Thanks!  
  
To Amy: *Gets big eyes* Do you really think so? ^-^ Thanks.  
  
Black Mistress: Oh ho ho. I am 'funnie' and you 'lurve' my fic? COOL! ^_________^  
  
Shimmie: *Gets big eyes* Oh, I have six reviews!  
  
Silvie: Shut up.  
  
Shimmie: P You are just mad cause you only have seven reviews on a fic that's been up forever.  
  
Myth: Don't fight!  
  
Shimmie: OH HO HO! I HAD MORE THAN A HUNDRED REVIEWS ON MY BITTER WINDS FIC! OH HO HO HO!  
  
Silvie: If you want this fic to stay on the net, you'd best shut it!  
  
Shimmie: *salutes* Yes M'am!  
  
***  
  
"JOOOOOOOOOO-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!!" Yugi called through the small apartment. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"  
  
Mai came out into the living room in just a bathrobe. Yami blushed since they weren't one again yet. She was toweling dry her damp blonde hair, and she smiled down at the two, who were still very short compared to her.  
  
"Why are you two in such a good mood?" She asked, blowing a strand of damp hair out of her face.  
  
"We did something really great for Joey!" Yugi said, too innocent to notice Mai's apparel- Or lack thereof. Yami did though: He was trying to stop a bad nosebleed. He really didn't want to be found at the end of Joey's "Fists of Fury" for ogling his girlfriend.  
  
"What'd you do?" Joey asked, who was fully clothed (unlike Mai) but his hair was still damp from a recent shower, and Yami hoped it wasn't communal...  
  
"I got someone to go see Serenity!" Yugi said happily, eyes perfect upside- down U's in his joy. You know, these thingies ^ but more round?  
  
"Really?" Joey said, suddenly radiant. "Did you tell them to tell her I really miss her, and I'll try to come see her this Christmas?"  
  
Yugi and Joey kept talking and talking... All these questions only a big brother would think up... Mai felt suspiscious, though. She got dressed and when she had come out again, Joey had gone of to buy some beer so they could all 'celebrate' leaving her with the two aibous.  
  
"Yugi..." She said to the short teen in front of her, "Who did you get? No wait... Don't tell me..." She took one look at the dragon statuette in Yami's hair. "Seto Kaiba, right?" Yami caught her look, and scowled as he yanked the statue out of his hair and crashed it in the trash can.  
  
"How did you know?" Yugi asked inredicously.  
  
"Hun, only Kaiba has dragon statuettes that he would pitch at Yami."  
  
For once, Mai thought it was a gift that Joey was too thick to think of asking who Yugi had sent  
  
"How did you get him to do it for you?" she asked after laughing at Yami for a bit, hoping nothing illegal was involved. Yami sniffed airly.  
  
"Called on a favor he owed me... Well, more then one... Actually, all the favors he owes me!" Yugi burst into nervous laughter, and Mai sighed. She'd keep it a secret, but if Joey found out...  
  
***  
  
Kaiba was annoyed. How had he gotten roped into this again? He flipped through his memories of Yugi's visit. What had made him so crabby that day again? Besides the report? Oh yes... He remembered now... First of all, there had been the stupid reoccurring freaky dreams that were more like memories that wouldn't let him sleep, and then he found out about his report, and then he found out that he had forgotten about his algebra homework (Three days of school, two days of work) and had had to rush to get it done (Kaiba hated rushing things...), and finally, as if it were the icing of the bad-day cake, he had gotten a visit from everyone's favorite yami (Named Yami!!! ^_____^ Okay, we'll cut that gag now! ^^)...  
  
He had a feeling he was going to get a migraine... No wait, cross that: he already had one... And he was allergic to aspirin. Shit, shit, shit.  
  
Kaiba too a glance at his younger sibling, was glad that he had his own personal jet. Why? Mokuba was acting like an animal. Kaiba was now deeply regretting the highly sugar/caffeine filled drink he had presented his brother with...  
  
"When are we there, Seto? Huh huh huh?" He trilled, bouncing on his heels.  
  
"Mokuba, sit down."  
  
"O-kay..." Mokuba sighed, sitting down on the plush seat. "When can we see Serenity? Huh huh huh?" Kaiba rolled his eyes.  
  
"I don't know." He replied simply. "But do you remember the rules I told you?"  
  
"Yeah! I made a song about them so I could remember," Mokuba said, grinning. Taking a big breath, he opened his mouth and prepared to burst into song-  
  
"Mokuba." Kaiba directed in a threatening tone. Mokuba blinked, and shut his mouth. "No singing."  
  
Blessed silence.  
  
"O-kay..." Mokuba said, acting as if he had never been allowed to play with anything entertaining before. He tried the Lost-And-Lonely-Puppy Look, but Kaiba had long ago steeled himself against this tactic, although Mokuba often got away with stuff by presenting this look.  
  
"The rules, Mokuba."  
  
"Oh yeah!" Mokuba said, mood lifted. And although he did not sing them, his voice was a different pitch and went higher and lower. But he wasn't singing! "Don't ask her what it feels like, to have not see things in her head, but treat her very kindly, give her some respect, make sure it's not about her sight, and don't forget to make it's courteous and polite!" Mokuba then pulled out a kazoo, which Kaiba was later going to BURN, and tooted a few notes, then stopped to beam up at his brother, looking for approval.  
  
"Good job kiddo," Kaiba said, slightly annoyed but not enough to refuse a kind smile to his little brother. Mokuba's smile seemed to brighten up the whole room, and grabbed a box of chocolate mint cookies. These cookies particularly angered Kaiba; Mokuba had bought a storehouse-full "accidentally." Somehow, Kaiba was not. So. Sure.  
  
Sighing, he rubbed his now sore head. Yugi and his bunch of groupies better stay away from him from now on... This was a big favor he was paying them... Seeing the inu's sister was just another burden...  
  
***  
  
"Can I ring the doorbell, Nii-sama?" Mokuba asked, bouncing on one foot. Kaiba looked at him oddly: It looked like he needed to use the restroom. Looking over this, he gave a careless wave of his hand.  
  
"Go ahead." He prompted, and Mokuba cheered, and rang the doorbell at least eight times before Kaiba could stop him. He groaned, and decided to NEVER give Mokuba sugar AGAIN.  
  
Kaiba shifted his briefcase from one hand to the other in impatience, seeing as they waited for about five minutes. But when it finally creaked open, no one stood in front of them. Mokuba had on a face that read "This- Is-A-Haunted-House-Nii-Sama-Goes-First!" But then a golden retriever popped out from behind the door, panting and smiling in its doggish way.  
  
"WOW!" Mokuba cried happily, looking ready to pounce on the dog. "What a ger-AAAAAAATE puppy!"  
  
Kaiba sighed. The dog barked, and ran off into the house... Er, wouldn't call it a house... Way too small.  
  
Inside was stuffy and hot, and Kaiba immediately reached up and loosened his shirt. Mokuba was too enthralled with the dog to notice, and followed it happily. Kaiba followed, looking around the dingy place.  
  
They could use a maid, he thought sourly. And an air conditioner.  
  
Finally the dog came to a room, and using her nose to pry open the door, scuttled inside. Mokuba uttered another "Wow" before silently entered behind it. Kaiba came afterwards.  
  
Inside the room, a girl sat on a couch, with a large book in front of her. She was sliding her fingers along the pages. It was a Braille book. She had long, red hair, which was tied back neatly: Perhaps her mother had the courtesy of fixing it. She had a pale complexion, and large blue eyes, which weren't focused on much of anythingz. But a clouded look told of the lack of sight.  
  
She was young- Kaiba supposed fourteen. Compared to his nineteen-year-old self, it seemed quite young to him. But her eyes, weighed down with emotion, said she had felt more than her age should usually allow. She looked confused, and was fingering a nightstand. Her fingers were inches away from a laptop, and Kaiba guessed this is what she was searching for.  
  
In a rare stroke of kindness that he rarely had, he reached over and pushed it to her hand.  
  
"Hello," she said, taking the laptop. "Thank-you for helping me. What is your message?"  
  
Kaiba and Mokuba looked at each other, for once, silent. Mokuba shifted on one foot to the other, expecting Kaiba to speak. He didn't. So Mokuba did instead.  
  
"Uh... What message?" Mokuba asked, looking confused. The girl smiled, though it lit up her sad face, a tint of sadness remained.  
  
"You know, that your mother sent you with? Is it babysitting? Or what?" The girl continued, typing a password to her account. Kaiba watched as she typed it three times (She messed up once or twice) and caught it as "Blue- eyes". What a weird password. (Considering his was the same thing)  
  
Mokuba frowned.  
  
"We... Um, don't have one."  
  
"We?" she said, looking around, as if she would see someone. "There's more than one of you?" The dog barked twice, and the girl nodded. "Two then. Is it on a note? I'm sorry, but I won't be able to read it."  
  
"No, that's not why we are here." Kaiba sighed, getting very, very bored. The girl frowned.  
  
"Why are you here then?" she asked, closing the lid of her laptop.  
  
"WE ARE HERE TO SEE YOU!" Mokuba cheered, dug in his pockets and threw out a couple handfulls of confetti in the air. Kaiba sighed. Sometimes his brother was a handful.  
  
"Are you?" Serenity asked; brow knitted together. She lifted a hand, and counted on her fingers to be an example for them, not her. "1: I don't want any medication. 2: I can't accept your offer to go to college. And 3: No, I don't want to buy anything." Kaiba didn't growl, although he wanted to; this girl was acting like nobody ever came to see her!  
  
"No, no!" Mokuba insisted. "Yugi wanted us to come see you, cause Joey isn't gonna be able to make it!"  
  
"Joey's not coming?" she whispered, and to Kaiba, the room had suddenly gotten icy cold. He rubbed his neck, and relied on Mokuba to do the talking. Mokuba, though, decided actions speak louder than words and swiftly and suddenly hugged the girl.  
  
She was slightly startled, but she smiled. Kaiba gave one of his own rare smiles, although she wouldn't see it...  
  
"I have one question." Mokuba said, suddenly getting all straight and serious. Kaiba sighed. He was going to ask something like "Is your fridge running" or some corny joke like that. Hopefully the girl had a good sense of humor...  
  
"Ask away," she said, patting on the seat beside her. The dog smiled at her and was about to jump up but Mokuba beat her to it. The dog pouted momentarily, and then sought out Kaiba for attention. Kaiba reached down at petted the dog's head, which was soft from many pets. Obviously, half of this girl's day was spent just petting her dog. He glanced up as Mokuba inhaled, about to ask his question...  
  
Jumping up with the thrill of his question, Mokuba blurted out, "ARE YOU REALLY BLIND?!?!"  
  
"Mokuba!" Kaiba said, now thoroughly embarrassed. He softly whapped his brother on the head, who screamed "OW!" like it a horrible wound.  
  
"WHAT?! It was courteous! It was polite!" Mokuba said apprehensively. The glare Kaiba now gave Mokuba silenced him.  
  
"It wasn't very nice." Kaiba sighed. The girl, momentarily forgotten, was blushing.  
  
"That's alright," she said, her voice clearing the brother's argument. "I've been asked that question a million times. Everyone asks me that at least once."  
  
Kaiba gave Mokuba a menacing look, who returned it with a pout. He went to again sit down next to Joey's sister, but the dog had now claimed its rightful spot, and now was challenging Mokuba with a sly grin.  
  
"Nii-sama! The dog stole my spot!" Mokuba whined. "Make it give it back!"  
  
"Oh, goodness Sakura! Down!" The girl said, and the dog swiftly did so. "I'm sorry. I don't get much visitors, and she's usually with me on the couch."  
  
Mokuba, though, plopped down as quickly as the dog left. He grinned at his brother, who raised an eyebrow at him.  
  
"Yes, I am really blind. But we needn't talk about that... So who are you?" the girl asked, her voice full of curiosity. "I'm Serenity." Oh, so that was her name. Kaiba, honestly, had forgotten.  
  
"Oh, I'm Mokuba Kaiba!" Mokuba said, grinning.  
  
"So you're the Kaiba who beat my brother!" Serenity smiled. Mokuba glanced at Kaiba, but said nothing. "And the other one?" Kaiba frowned.  
  
"Curiosity killed the cat," he half growled, half muttered. He was in no mood to give out his first name; that damned migraine was splitting his head in two... He pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to alleviate the pain. The gods must have been crazy to make him allergic to aspirin...  
  
"No, no, no," Mokuba said, again rising to the conversation. "I didn't beat your big brother. My Nii-sama, the bestest big brother in the whole world, beat your big brother."  
  
"I'm afraid there is an error in that statement." The girl frowned, and this pulled a dark mask over her face. Her eyes suddenly turned a bright shade of purple (much like Mai's), and it was like in a slideshow when they change slides. Her eyes glared down at Mokuba, actually seeing him. "Joey is definitely silly... Sometimes unreliable and unrealistic, but his heart is in the right place. So, therefore, MY big brother is the best big brother in the whole wide world."  
  
Mokuba frowned. (Oblivious to her now very clear sight)  
  
"You're wrong! Nii-sama is the bestest!"  
  
"Joey!" Serenity argued, and Kaiba was amazed that the timid girl was rising to battle out who was the best. His eyebrow was in his hairline; this was too much like with Yami and Yugi... His eyes then spotted the huge golden ankh on her chest, definite Egyptian symbol there. (C'mon, Kaiba's a genius! Of course he knows a bit about ancient Egypt!) He filed that away in his mind for future use; right now his head hurt... A lot...  
  
"NU-UH!" Mokuba pouted, stomping his foot peevishly. "MY BIG ONII-SAMA IS THE BESTEST!"  
  
"JOEY!"  
  
"NII-SAMA!"  
  
"JOEY!"  
  
"NII-SAMA!"  
  
Serenity got a very sour look. But then, again she flashed, and her eyes looked different, very mad but toned down. They faded from the striking, seeing and seething amethyst, to the faded, sad, violet.  
  
"I am sure this is not worth arguing." Serenity said stiffly. "Would you two like something to drink." This was more of a statement then a question, and Serenity rose swiftly and groped around for the leash for her dog- Sakura, if Kaiba remembered right.  
  
Kaiba sighed, and gave it to her.  
  
"Thank you." She said, looping it over her wrist. "Sakura, kitchen!" She closed the door, and she could be heard talking to herself.  
  
Kaiba glared at Mokuba, who was still steaming.  
  
"That chicken! She knows I'm winning!" Mokuba pouted.  
  
"Mokuba, I don't want you fighting with the her about such a stupid thing!"  
  
"Aw, Nii-sama, it's your name I'm defending! Why not?" Kaiba glared at his brother, and he quieted. Just in time too, because Serenity came in. It was then Kaiba noticed her outfit: A rather dingy white shirt, on top of which hung an odd looking golden key. The shirt looked as if it had been washed to many times, and a faded flower print skirt that just dusted the floor. Underneath, two small bare feet stood on the dusty floor. Her long red hair done in a braid, he now noticed, reached her waist. She was very pretty, with her pretty violet eyes and pale skin. She seemed very delicate, as if touching her would cause her to shatter. Kaiba wondered if she might be anorexic, being so short, but dissmissed this thought quietly. She was short also, would only reach his shoulders if he were standing up. She seemed well developed for a 14 year old, and when he realized he was thinking, he mentally slapped himself. In her pale hands, she held two cans of Sprite.  
  
"This is all we have, I'm afraid... And I couldn't find the glasses... We are out of ice..." Mokuba pounced on the caffeine before Kaiba could ask for him NOT to get one. Kaiba took the other one, even though he hated Sprite. And 7up, for that matter... And most other sodas. Coffee was his preferred beverage, but he didn't voice this opinion aloud.  
  
After taking one sip, Mokuba grinned, his mood seemingly erased. But he again jumped to his feet, pointing at Serenity.  
  
"I challenge you to a DUEL! Actually, NO! Big brother does!" Mokuba challenged. Kaiba sighed, and this was about the 80th time that day.  
  
"She probably doesn't have a deck," Kaiba said quietly. Mokuba looked at his brother before protesting.  
  
"Of course she does!" Mokuba said, a definite whine in his voice. "Who doesn't?! Come on Nii-sama!"  
  
"I do have cards." Serenity said, fingers again searching a table.  
  
"HA!" Mokuba goaded. "Now you HAVE to!"  
  
"But-" Serenity said, fingers falling on a large pile of coated sheets, "Not a deck. I collect them... My friends give me them, and this is what I have now." They were in a clear sheet, and a strip of even, tiny dots told her what card they were.  
  
"Oooooooo!" Mokuba said, plopping down on the couch. "Lemme see!" Serenity took slightly more time getting there, but got there all the same. "What are the dots for?"  
  
"That's Braille." Serenity said, smiling. "It tells me what card it is, and who gave it to me. Because no matter how great the card, the friend who gave it to me is much better."  
  
"Will you read them to me?" Mokuba asked, giving his favored big brother a favored glance. Kaiba was scratching Sakura's ears and looking very bored. "Oh, alright, you can work on your program Nii-sama. But you got to start talking we we're done!"  
  
Kaiba momentarily looked extremely gleeful, and immediately took out his laptop. (Sakura, having lost Kaiba's attention, was stricken, but soon found attention via Mokuba.)  
  
"This is my Harpy's Lady, and Joey's girlfriend sent it to me. Her name is Mai Valentine, and she came with Joey to see me a year ago." She said, as she traced her fingers across the narrow band.  
  
"Wow, pretty cool." Mokuba said, "But Nii-sama's cards are cool too."  
  
"This is from my brother, my Baby Red Eyes Black Dragon. I love this card." Serenity said fondly, and a small smile etched across her lips as she thought about her brother.  
  
"What about that one?" Mokuba asked, pointing at another one. Sakura, now having lost attention by Mokuba, was now pouting. Looking woefully at Kaiba, she schemed of a way to get the anti-social CEO to scratch her ears.  
  
"This is the Pharaoh's Queen," Serenity said with a soft smile. "And her sister card, the Pharaoh's Healer, also known as the Pharaoh's Concubine. Just being near each other gives them an extra two hundred attack points. They may have sworn allegiance to this card," she traced her fingers over to the next card, "the Pharaoh, but they plan to destroy him. But under his rule, they gain another 1000 hundred attack points. Pretty cool, huh? And then, this card..." Again her fingers darted over the glossy page, resting on another card, "The Priest, is in love with the Healer. When on the field with her, he becomes the High Priest, bumping up his attack points by five hundred." She tapped another card. "And finally, the Pharaoh's son-" falling on the last card, "Gives them each another two hundred attack points. It's a pretty good set. Plus this trap card, the Pharaoh's Tomb. It eliminates all enimes on the board."  
  
"Wow." Mokuba said. He then dragged Serenity's fingers over to another card. "What's this one?"  
  
"That is the Mystical Elf," Serenity said, her nimble fingers running over the smooth band. "My friend gave it to me, before she died."  
  
"That's sad." Mokuba said. Sakura waved her paw towards Kaiba's knee, alerting the CEO of her need for attention. Giving in, Kaiba gave her a scratch between the ears. About fifteen minutes later, Mokuba and Serenity were on the last page, and Kaiba was almost done with his presentation.  
  
"Whoa," Mokuba said, obviously amazed. "Nii-sama's got three of those. He says they are really rare! I thought there was only four!"  
  
"Maybe, but I have one, that's for sure." Serenity said, smiling. Kaiba, feeling accomplished, shut his laptop, not hearing a word they had said. Looking at his watch, he noticed the time was 8:30- and they had an hour- long drive to the hotel! (That was way past Mokuba's bedtime! (SHOCK! HORROR!))  
  
"We have to go." Kaiba said, getting up, and placing his laptop down. Mokuba began to whine.  
  
"Awwwww, Nii-Sama, do we have to go NOW?" He asked, arms crossed in a defiant expression.  
  
"He's right," Serenity said, gathering her pages. "It should be late. I'll have to call for something."  
  
Kaiba understood that she meant dinner. Made sense, he couldn't see how she could cook. Mokuba kept on whining and pouting, but Kaiba managed to get him out the door, with Serenity fingering behind him.  
  
Without Sakura, she seemed unsure of herself, and an enormous amount of pity welled up inside him. But she found the door, and opened it after a minute or two of fiddling with the handle.  
  
A sudden spark in his mind made him remember he forgot his laptop.  
  
"I have to go get my laptop," he said, turning to go back. But Mokuba pranced out ahead of him.  
  
"I'll get it!" He said, and swiftly went into the room. A sudden crack of thunder made Serenity jump.  
  
"Oh, oh my." She said. "Tell me, are there rain clouds?" Kaiba looked out the door: There indeed were dark billowing stromclouds in the sky.  
  
"Yeah, looks like it." He said, a little uncomfortable.  
  
"Oh, no." Serenity sighed. "Do you see an umbrella?"  
  
"Yes," Kaiba said, spotting a black one over in the corner. "But it doesn't sound smart to go out in this rain."  
  
"Oh, I'm not. But the house... Uh, leaks. Guess I'm not calling in for something after all."  
  
Pity was not an emotion Seto Kaiba often felt. But right about now we was so overwhelmed with it that he wanted to offer to bring her to the hotel for something to eat, or even stay a minute or two longer to make her Mac & Cheese, even though he wasn't so good at cooking. Or even waterproof at least one room.  
  
But at this time Mokuba raced into the room, Kaiba's metal briefcase extended. He took it, and afterwards Mokuba pounced on Serenity.  
  
"I want to give you something... Another card to put in your collection!" Mokuba grinned. "I saw your brother using it... And I thought it was knarly kewl ((Silvie: *appears* MY SAYING!!!!)), so I got one off E-Bay. Two actually. But I think you... Should have them."  
  
Saying this, he pressed two cards in her hands.  
  
"They're called 'The Red Eyes Black Dragon,' so your baby can have a mom and a dad."  
  
"Thanks, Mokuba." Serenity said, giving him a smile. She pressed a sisterly-  
  
(A/N Author Note): NOTICE 'SISTERLY!!"  
  
-kiss in his rather messy black hair. "And I am sure that you would definitely win the bestest little brother contest. Don't you agree-"  
  
"Curiosity killed the cat, and repetition infuriated the toddler."  
  
"Yeah..." Serenity said, snapping back into her purple-eyed-self for a minuet with a grin. "Well, don't bother CKC, alright?"  
  
"CKC..." Mokuba said, thinking aloud. "OH! I get it: Curiosity Killed the Cat! Cool!"  
  
"Well, I hope Joey tells me more about you two sometime." Serenity said, patting Mokuba on the head, fading back into the sweet blue-eyed Serenity. "And I don't mind if you beat my brother again," she smiled. "He needs practice."  
  
"Okay! I'll tell Nii-sama that!" Mokuba said, cheerful. "Come on, CKC!!!" Kaiba sighed at the mention of this new "nickname" which he had never wanted.  
  
"Nicknames... Either they can put you on top of the world, or tear you down to your last thread." Serenity said solemnly. Kaiba glanced at the girl: That was not something he expected from her. "Goodbye, Mystery Man. Or Kaiba. I suppose I can call you that. Goodbye Mokuba."  
  
And then, without waiting for, or maybe not expecting, a return goodbye, she shut the door. Kaiba turned without bothering to be offended, and joined Mokuba in the limo.  
  
"Nii-sama? What's a concubine?"  
  
And Seto Kaiba sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.  
  
***  
  
Okay, this is one of the longer chapters. This fic is actually finished! SO READ UP! ^-^ 


	4. Babysitting, Sugar, and Sand

Ashiteru Matsudai  
  
Chapter Three: Babysitting, Sugar, and Sand  
  
***  
  
Shimmie: ^____________________^ Hi. Again!  
  
To vendred13: No, my fic is not finished! What I mean is that I already have all the chapters written!  
  
Firefly of Hell: This is a bit AU, and those two are around nineteen, twenty. Kaiba's the same age, while Serenitys' only seventeen.  
  
Amy: (1) ^_^ You are quite welcome, but. . . YOU WENT TO SIN CITY! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!  
  
Amy: (2) To many Amy's. . . So cunfusled. Uhhh, one problem. My name is Shimmersea, and this fic is just posted on my friends (Lady Silver Dragon) account. So. . .Yeah.  
  
Shimmie: What? Only four new reviews! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  
  
***  
  
That morning, Kaiba was rushed to meetings very early, leaving Mokuba sleeping in the hotel room. Beside him was his laptop, which he hadn't looked at since his visit to the dog's sister. She wasn't half bad.  
  
Mokuba hadn't stopped talking about her though. She wasn't that great. He was now pleading for Kaiba to take him to see her again, and this time he'd give her a better card, show her his, blah, blah, blah.  
  
Now, he was in a meeting, surrounded with people older but less intelligent then him. They were all taking out laptops to make notes on the first presentation. Kaiba opened his metal breifcase, but to his amazement: The laptop sitting in it wasn't his.  
  
It was Wheeler's sister's; Serenity. Mokuba was in for it this time. He remembered the password, though. . . All he needed was word. Hopefully she wouldn't mind if he borrowed her word prosessing.  
  
All he had to do was take notes. But he typed in her password, and a little thing flew up and beeped at him.  
  
Work on "Sands"?  
  
Kaiba, "accidentally" pressed yes. It was a large document: Full of passages and emotions and text. When he checked, it was 287 pages long. It talked about seemingly everything. But still, it was put into a story. . . The feelings of a young Egyptian woman. She was much older than Serenity: 26. But in the authors note it said that she had started when she was 14, when she went blind, and was now 17. That was much older than he had thought.  
  
One familiar passage leapt up at him:  
  
"Nicknames. . . Either they can put you on top of the world, or tear you down to your last thread. . ."  
  
She had said that to him last night. . . He felt very heart stricken suddenly, though he pretended to look enthralled with what the man speaking was saying.  
  
She made many errors; that was to be expected. And sometimes, she wrote similar stories and quotes, because she forgot what she had written above. It took him all of the three hour meeting to finish correcting it: Then it was still a whopping 250 pages. That was a long document, because Kaiba knew that you folded pages in half, so if it were paperback that would be 500 pages. Pretty good sized.  
  
Well, he had to stop by to get his laptop. . . Maybe he'd be more talkative this time.  
  
Maybe.  
  
***  
  
When he came to the hotel room, there was a little sign on the door that read "Do not disturb." Kaiba sighed, and opened the door. His eyes widened. The mess that welcomed him was horendous.  
  
"MOKUBA!" he called, for they were on the top floor suite, and that had way to many rooms for Mokuba to mess up (Mansion was bigger, though). He was sitting on the couch upside down, attempting to drink hot chocolate.  
  
"What?" Mokuba said, trying to look innocent. Kaiba sighed. He needed a babysitter. "By the way, some one sent that for you." Mokuba said, pointing at a post box. In stiff, neat handwritting hard to read, it said "Kaiba".  
  
"How'd you know it was for me?" he asked, picking it up.  
  
"The 'CKC' part."  
  
Kaiba blushed. Mokuba was right: There was a CKC scrawled on a different side of the box. His brother must have looked at it through a telescope, he was so bored. In fact, he might had even peeked inside and retaped it so it'd look untapered.  
  
"What's in it?" Seto asked, looking at the box.  
  
"Your laptop." Mokuba said obviously without thinking.  
  
"Mokuba, do I ever look in your stuff?" Kaiba asked with a sigh.  
  
"No," Mokuba said.  
  
"Then don't look in mine!" he said, taking his laptop out and hooking it up. "Now clean up while I look for a sitter."  
  
"I don't need no babysitter!" Mokuba pouted.  
  
"Explain the room then."  
  
"That was an accident!"  
  
"Many things, Mokuba, are an accident.The room is not one of those things."  
  
"Aw, come on, Seto!" Mokuba whined. "Cleaning is for mai-ds. . ."  
  
"How many cups of hot chocolate did you have?" Kaiba asked, ignoring Mokuba's whining.  
  
"EIGHT!" Mokuba said proudly. Kaiba sighed. "When can we go see Seren?" Mokuba continued.  
  
"Seren?" Kaiba asked, slightly confused. "Who's- Oh. Wheeler's sister. Where'd you come up with that?"  
  
"Well, I was telling my teddy bears how great she was and Snowbear suggested it and I thought it fit so there!" Mokuba said, all with out pausing. He really needed to stop eating so much sugar. . .  
  
***  
  
Serenity Wheeler was not expecting a personal delivery of her laptop. She suspected Kaiba would be practical and send it to her by mail. But when she heard the phone ring, she knew not many people called them. Confused, she reached for the phone. She dropped it, and almost hurt herself trying to find it again.  
  
The first time they called she missed it, but believing they might call back. The second time she was prepared, it was in her lap and waiting.  
  
"Hello, this is the Wheeler/Jone-" she began to say in her practiced voice.  
  
"I know what recidence this is Wheeler." Said the young man on the other line curtly.  
  
"Alright, then, what is your-" she continued on without mention of his rude interruption.  
  
"I'm not leaving a message for your mother EITHER, Wheeler."  
  
Now in a very sour mood, Serenity spat out,  
  
"Now you've made a rhyme. What are you bothering me for? I am not buying anything, or accepting the college aplication, or-" Serenity continued, and before he could interrupt again she finished, "And you must learn NOT to interrupt!"  
  
Silence. A long silence. Which lead her to hang up.  
  
"I hate prank calls." She said loudly, as if the caller was in the room.  
  
It rang again, and she picked it up, and coating her voice sweetly she asked, "Hello, Wheeler/Jones residence, how may I help you?"  
  
"You may help me by baby-sitting my- Excuse me a moment." Serenity was about to suppose this was another prank call, until she heard loud yelling. "GET DOWN FROM THERE MOKUBA, YOU'LL HURT YOURSELF!"  
  
"COME ON, BIG BROTHER! WHOOPEE!" cried Mokuba doing whatever Kaiba had tried to stop him from doing. "HEY! PUT ME DOWN!"  
  
"WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT DRINKING SO MUCH HOT CHOCOLATE?" Kaiba yelled. Serenity held the phone away from her ear, and the fight lasted at least five more minutes.  
  
"HELLO?" The phone bellowed, and Serenity jumped, losing the phone again. "IT'S MOKUBA!!"  
  
"MOKUBA, GIVE ME THE PHONE!"  
  
"NO, WAY NII-SAMA! WATCH, I CAN JUGGLE!"  
  
"MOKUBA!"  
  
"HEY SEREN! IS IT OKAY IF I CALL YOU THAT? GOOD!"  
  
"GIVE ME THE PHONE!"  
  
"DON'T WANNA!"  
  
"MOKUBA!!!"  
  
"C'MON, NII-SAMA! I WANNA TALK TO SEREN!"  
  
"GIVE ME THE PHONE NOW MOKUBA!"  
  
"NOT TILL I GET TO TALK TO HER!"  
  
"NO, NOW!"  
  
"UH-UH!"  
  
"YES!"  
  
"NO!"  
  
Serenity searched, well, blindly for the phone. She couldn't hear loud voices anymore, and he might be trying to talk to her.  
  
"HELLO?" the voice from the phone came ringing out.  
  
"I'm over here! I dropped the phone!" She called, desperately trying to search for it. "Sakura, phone!"  
  
"HELLO?" the phone continued. Serenity's fingers touched the smooth plastic of the phone. She took it up to her ear, and another "HELLO!" bellowed and she almost dropped it again.  
  
"Hello!" she said, panting from the expense she had taken to search for the phone. She blushed at the thought of the quieter Kaiba brother silently pushing nessicary items just to her reach.  
  
"Hello. Sorry about- Yeah." Kaiba said, sounding a little embaressed. "I need you to babysit Mokuba for me."  
  
"I'm afraid I can't get to your hotel," Serenity said sadly, feeling around for the couch.  
  
"No, I'd bring him to you. I'd pay you too, 500 dollars an hour."  
  
"An hour? Do you? Are you insane? Okay, Kaiba, american money doesn't work the same as yen!" Serenity said, freaking out. Her mother's checks never even grazed that amount!  
  
"Do you think I really don't understand american money?" Kaiba sighed, obviously tired. "I'd also pay for the meals Mokuba ate. . . And nessisary things."  
  
"You don't have to. . ." Serenity said, trailing off. This was a lot of money.  
  
"I want to." He said.  
  
"A man of few and simple words," she replied. Again, as if not expecting any goodbye, or perhaps not wishing for one, she hung up.  
  
***  
  
Serenity Wheeler was the one who met them at the door. She gave Mokuba a small smile, and nodded to the older brother. Mokuba raced in to pet Sakura, leaving Serenity and Kaiba to barter.  
  
"I won't take 500 dollars." She said simply.  
  
"You will, because that's what I'm paying you."  
  
"Then I'll take twenty dollars of it and give the rest back. I don't need such money."  
  
"Trust me," Kaiba said, looking around, "You do."  
  
Serenity frowned at this comment, but continued.  
  
"How long?"  
  
"Probably from now until six."  
  
"Should I feed him dinner too?"  
  
"No, promised him Dairy Queen. . . Though god knows he doesn't need the extra sugar."  
  
"Yes, yes," Serenity finished, feeling around for the door once more. But before she could shut it on him, he squeezed in a small, rather cold thing:  
  
"Good-bye." He said simply. She looked stunned, and she stopped closing the door for a second. But then she seemingly recovered and said:  
  
"Goodbye."  
  
"BYE NII-SAMA! BYEBYEBYEBYEBYEBYEBYEBYEBYEBYEBYEBYE NII-SAMA!!!!!" Mokuba yelled from the other room.  
  
Serenity frowned, and closed the door.  
  
***  
  
Babysitting Mokuba proved to be rather uneventful. They ordered pizza, and he was delightful to be around, but around 3:00 he fell asleep. Serenity was his personal cushion, so she stayed where she was, with a blanket Serenity had almost hurt herself trying to get . She had Sakura draped over her feet, and the dog was warm and soft. Serenity was very tired: As soon as her charge was lifted she would go to sleep, too tired to argue about the pay.  
  
Kaiba arrived very, very late: Around 12:30. Serenity had a clock that announced the hour and half hour, and barely a second after "Twelve-Thirty" came ringing across the room the doorbell rang.  
  
Serenity innerly fought weither to get up to get the door, or let Sakura get it. Sakura was on her feet, so she'd be disturbed either way.  
  
"Sakura, get the door." She yawned, trying to keep her yawn stiffled (She was unsucsessful in this feat).  
  
"Mokuba, sweetling, get up." She urged, softly patting his head. "Your brother's here."  
  
"Don't wanna get up. . ." Mokuba muttered, yawning. "Stay'in riiii-ght here."  
  
"But your brothers here! And he promised you ice-cream! Don't you want ice- cream?"  
  
"Too tired for ice cream. . ." Mokuba groaned, snuggling even closer. "Must. . . Sleep. . ."  
  
She heard Kaiba's footsteps and Sakura again placing herself on Serenity's feet. She could tell he was tired-very tired.  
  
"Mokuba, dear, get up!" she insisted. Mokuba groaned, and latched himself tighter. "I'm sorry. . . He won't get up. You can try if you want."  
  
Kaiba sighed, but a second or two later she heard him whispering softly. She was to tired to even attempt to eavesdrop, but she knew it was in Japanese.  
  
"Nooo. . ." Mokuba whined. "I ain't movin'! It's nice and warm here. . . Serenity can give you the number of a hotel. . . I'll just stay here. . ."  
  
Kaiba again sighed and tried whispering to Mokuba again, but he was rebuffed again.  
  
"Too tired. . . Ain't movin'. If you had used Seren for a pillow, you wouldn't wanna get up neither. . ." Mokuba mumbled. Serenity blushed at two things: A.) Her new nickname, which her brother used also. But she didn't rebuke Mokuba for saying this and B.) She was embaressed by being 'such a good pillow'. But she said nothing.  
  
"Mokuba, if you stay here, I'm not going to leave."  
  
"Fine, but Serenity's my pillow. Use Sakura. . ." Mokuba mumbled.  
  
"Mokuba, I'm to tired to argue with you." Kaiba sighed, and Serenity tried to squirm around so she'd be more comfortable.  
  
***  
  
Kaiba was very angry, confused, and most of all tired at the moment. Serenity looked damned tired, and was trying to squirm out of Mokuba's grasp, eyes closed.  
  
"Mokuba, you have to go home. I wanna go to bed," she murmured, pulling a hand through her red hair. "And I can't get to my bed with you wrapped around my waist."  
  
Kaiba had seen Mokuba like this only twice: And he knew there was no persuading him to do anything but sleep at the moment. Serenity looked like hell, and her dog looked just as bad.  
  
"Let go of the blind girl, sweetling, she needs to sleep." Serenity whispered, trying to unlatch Mokuba. She looked ready to collapse. But all of her attempts were in vain, because Mokuba just tightened his hold. He looked about three years younger than he was, using her as a teddy-bear. She groaned and tried to shake him off. "Mokuba, please. . ." she whined, but she didn't try to sqirm in his grasp any longer. To Kaiba, she said, "My bedroom is down the hall 2nd door. Or mom's is the 1st. You might wanna take hers, you sound tired. It's closer, you know?"  
  
Kaiba gave her a half smile half smirk. He looked around the room. The only place to sit was on the other side of Wheeler's sister or. . . With the dog. So maybe the bedroom wasn't so bad. But he didn't want to leave Mokuba here alone. . .  
  
As if reading his mind, Serenity squeezed herself over, lying her head down on the couch and pulling Mokuba along with her, making the space on the other side of Mokuba. She sighed, and in the small room left on the couch, the dog lept up and soon took.  
  
"There's a blanket. . . In the closet. . . 2nd door on the right." She muttered, sighing as her dog sqeezed into the small remaining space, and Mokuba grabled her tighter. Kaiba kicked of his shoes, and got a blanket, which was thin and worn, but seemed to serve the right purpose. He then sat next to Mokuba, trying to look sinister and not be totally uncomfortable at the same time.  
  
He valiantly tried to stay awake, not wanting to show weakness in the face of the unknown, knowing that he would be primarily useless tomorrow, but gave up on the battle, and fell into the welcomed oblivion of sleep.  
  
***  
  
Ho ho! What is this? A sleepover? Tee hee. Okay, sorry. I'll go now. REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


	5. Nightmare

Ashiteru Matsudai Chapter Four: Nightmare  
  
***  
  
Shimmie: Hi!  
  
Silvie: ^_^ Hello!  
  
Myth: *Pops bubblegum bubble*  
  
Shimmie: ^^; I told her not to do that during the fic, but she did not listen.  
  
Silvie: You want to know something?  
  
Shimmie: Do I?  
  
Silvie: *Thinks about it* Yes, you do.  
  
Shimmie: Oh, okay then.  
  
Silvie: You know what?  
  
Shimmie: *pouts* No! I don't!  
  
Silvie: THEY MESSED UP MY NAME! *Begins to rant*  
  
Shimmie: Darn. *Whaps Silvie with a mallet*  
  
Silvie: *Blinks and stops ranting*  
  
Shimmie: Help me thank the reviewers!  
  
Silvie: Oooooooo-kay! ^________________^  
  
Puppy Friendship: Yes, yes, Mokuba on a Sugar high IS scary, but the most feared of all is. . . SETO ON A SUGAR HIGH! (Girls faint and men scream like little girls)  
  
Vendred: No, she probably didn't. . . It is top secret now, don't you go telling Joey!  
  
Amy: You are very much welcome! ^_^ Well, then, you going to Las Vegas is like me going to Wisconsin Dells or Minneapolis. About the same amount of time. ;) Don't fret, I freak out a lot like that.  
  
Firefly of Hell: ) You bet the romance is peeking its ugly head. Actually, there is some right here in this very chapter! So watch for it!  
  
Divine Angel: Thankyou! I will!  
  
Sam: Maybe I just won't update again so I can get more reviews! (Giggles insanely)  
  
Vicky: I've got it! ;)  
  
Shimmie: And finally, one last thing!  
  
Silvie: The star reviewer, MRYNA, is the reason this chapters up!  
  
Shimmie: *Stars in eyes* She is so wonderful! And because of this, we have a special certain something for her!  
  
Silvie: SURPRISE!!!! WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP! *Blows Kazoo*  
  
Shimmie: *Throws glitter* HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP! *Blows on Harmonica*  
  
Silvie: We'll miss you while you are in Mehico!  
  
Shimmie: u_u;; It's Mexico.  
  
Silvie: But they say it like M-  
  
Shimmie: We know Silvie. We know.  
  
Silvie: Oh. Okay then.  
  
Shimmie: ^^;; Silvie: *Coughs* Happy birthday to you! (Clap clap clap)  
  
Shimmie: *Sings* Happy birthday to you! (Clap clap clap!)  
  
Both: Happy Birthday to Myrna! (Clap clap clap) HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! (Clap clap clap) *Throws glitter and sequins*  
  
Shimmie: YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Silvie: *Whistles* WHOHOO!  
  
Shimmie: ^_^ Okay, now it's time for Internet Prezies! You get: A CHOCOLATE CAKE!  
  
Silvie: WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP!  
  
Shimmie: A SAKURA!  
  
Silvie: WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP!  
  
Shimmie: AND A BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON!  
  
Both: YEAH!!!!!!  
  
Shimmie: Okay, now, to the fic.  
  
***  
  
Kaiba woke up at 5:29:45 (So said his watch), which was his usual time to get up, and Mokuba was still snoring away. Serenity was nowhere to be found, but Mokuba had reattached himself to his beloved Nii-sama, and had found that he was just as comfy as his former pillow.  
  
Seto really shouldn't have cared where she had gone, but somehow he wanted to know where she could have gone to. He looked around: A creep of light was just coming through the window.  
  
With a large yawn he got up, gently removing Mokuba, and the old wooden floorboards creaked under his weight. He remembered when Mokuba was young, whenever floors creaked he would run away, and demand Kaiba invent a little seat for him to ride on instead of walking on the floor. Why? He was afraid it would 'fall in on him.' Seto pretty much thought that Mokuba liked getting piggy-back-rides more than he was afraid of falling through the floor.  
  
Walking down a dusty hall full of pictures, one with Serenity and Joey, Serenity, a woman Kaiba supposed to be her mother (He still hadn't met her) and a picture of a few important things in Serenity's life. Like her Confirmation. She was younger then, and her eyes still sparkled with sight. Underneath her robe was the hem of a lavender dress. At one side was her pastor, on the other side her family. Even the dogs father. Even one of Serenity now, at 17, a nice, formal picture where she's staring of to the side, and it looks like it is for more drama, not because she wouldn't be able to focus on the camera.  
  
The last picture was one of her whole family. Joey looked upset, her mother looked worried and upset, her father looked cross, and Serenity's eyes were just beginning to cloud. But nonetheless she was smiling, and looked out of place with her depressed family.  
  
:::Flashback:::  
  
"C'mon you guys!" a younger Serenity said, adjusting her dress. "This could be our last family picture! Don't you want to at least make an effort?"  
  
"Come on, Seren," a grumpy Joey pouted. "There's no way you are getting the perfect picture you want."  
  
Serenity looked very upset, but nodded.  
  
"Say cheese!" The photographer said with a smile, squinting her eye to look through the lens.  
  
"Cheese!" Serenity said, with a rather convincing smile, but she was the only one smiling in a family of four.  
  
:::End Flashback:::  
  
There was a door, and looking inside it, Kaiba found it empty. Next door was a bathroom. Then the third door, second one on the right side, was slightly ajar.  
  
Peeking in, he saw the clothes Serenity had been wearing draped over a chair, and a dresser drawer out. Inside was something young men should not look at, so Kaiba discretely closed it. Serenity was in the lavender blankets, her red hair behind her, in a ponytail, wearing a plain pair of pajamas. Her eyes were closed, and her blankets kicked down. Beside her bed was a sliding table attached to the bed itself, which to swing to the bed to be used had on top of it a soft terrycloth robe, and down on the floor was a pair of slippers.  
  
Walking another step or two in, Kaiba looked around. The dresser and the bed were the only furniture in the room. The curtains were so worn the slight light coming from the window seemed like a new sun in the room, only not so hot.  
  
"No, no, no." Serenity whispered, scratching her sheet. Kaiba glanced at her, but her eyes were still clamped shut. "We're a family, Nii-sama, nothing stops family. Mom has room for you here. I don't want to be alone."  
  
Even though he knew Serenity was talking about Joey when she said 'Nii- sama' but it was like his brother Mokuba was on that bed instead. Not really knowing what exactly he was doing, he raced to the bed, kicking the slippers out of his way.  
  
"Sssh, don't worry about it," he whispered, and Serenity whimpered, and buried her face in her pillow, whispering something. But with the pillow in the way, he couldn't hear all she was saying.  
  
"Mom was talking on the phone. .She doesn't have enough money to even consider supporting me next year. .and she'll have to put me in some foster home. .I couldn't go, I'd kill myself first." Kaiba could relate; he and Mokuba must have gone through ten homes before finally settling in the orphanage, and then with Goza-  
  
Best not think about that.  
  
"Everything's going to be okay," Kaiba soothed, realizing now that it was Serenity, not Mokuba. But she looked so helpless like this... He couldn't just leave her.  
  
"I can't do it Joey. I can't." she whispered, clinging to her pillow. "How could I do this to you? And Mom? She's almost broke trying to support me now. I did this, by going blind. I should have done something. It's all my fault."  
  
"What were you going to do?" Kaiba continued. "It's not your fault."  
  
"Oh Joey, you were always so good to me," Serenity whispered, sighing. "But I know it's my fault. Don't try and make me change my mind."  
  
Serenity then opened her eyes and they actually focused on him, like she actually saw him. And her eyes were a clear purple. A second or two, he thought she would reach out and slap him, for being in her room. But the clouds came back, and her eyes again slumped shut. And he swore, for a second, he heard a whispery voice murmur in his mind.  
  
//Thank you little Seth-boy. You've helped my hikari in more ways then one.//  
  
***  
  
Serenity's eyes opened, and she had never felt worse. Hopefully the Kaiba brothers didn't need her, cause then she'd just have some cereal and sleep. Ooo, sleep sounded nice. She slid down off her bed, which was laden with extra mattresses. Her mother "collected" them, making each have at least three extra on their bed. She probed a bit for Ankh; the spirit was in her soul-room, currently giggling.  
  
/Do you ever stop giggling yami?/ Serenity sleepily asked.  
  
//Not with entertainment this good!// Ankh replied, still convulsing with giggles.  
  
Her feet hit the cold wooden floor, and she felt around with her toes for her slippers. Where had they gone to? She frowned, and went on without them. What would she have today.?  
  
She like cereals with marshmallows, like Lucky Charms and Alpha Bits. Little tags on the side told her what kind it was. She fingered Alpha Bits and considered. Then she continued to Frosted Mini wheats and chose this instead.  
  
"Hello, Serenity!" a voice called out to her.  
  
"Hello Mokuba, is your brother up?"  
  
"Not that I know of." Mokuba shrugged. "Haven't seen him."  
  
"That's odd. Would you like some cereal?" Serenity offered, indicating her box.  
  
"Yech, you eat that stuff? No way, what else do you have?" Mokuba asked. Serenity shrugged, and turned to the cereal cabinet.  
  
"Lucky Charms, Alpha-bits, Fruit Loops, Cheerios, Frosted flakes, Rasin Bran, Corn Flakes, and this." Again she shook Frosted Mini Wheats, but Mokuba made a choking sound.  
  
"I want Fruit Loops!" He cheered, and sat down. Serenity carefully fingered along the counter, eventually getting the Fruit Loops and a spoon, a straw and the milk. She set those down and then got the bowls.  
  
"Here you go," she said. Mokuba gladly took his bowl, and Serenity sat down. Placing a finger at the side of the bowl, with one side touching the edge, she poured her cereal. She felt the edge of a piece of cereal touch her finger, and she felt it was close to the rim, so she stopped pouring cereal. Then she got the milk and poured it the same way. Then, she placed her finger in her mouth and sucked off the milk.  
  
Then she sat and waited. Mokuba only noticed she hadn't taken a bite when he finished his second bowl.  
  
"Why aren't you eating?" He asked, stopping.  
  
"Oh, I like it soggy!" Serenity replied with a grin. Then using her fingers, she fished out a Mini Wheat, and popped it in her mouth. "Mmm, great as always."  
  
"Hrumph. I don't like those, they are sooooooo gross."  
  
"Are not! You just haven't eaten them right." Serenity replied with a grin. Reaching for Mokuba's spoon, she got him one. "Try it!"  
  
Mokuba looked at the smiling girl, but sighed and decided to humor her. If he wanted an onee-chan just as good as Sarah, he'd have to work hard at being good.  
  
:::Don't worry Mokuba-chan, I have the perfect plan.:::  
  
Mokuba grinned, and smothered a snicker; he had set phase one of The Plan off, and hopefully it had worked.  
  
"If I must." he replied, and took the spoon. He grimaced and slowly lowered it onto his mouth. "Wow. You're right, these are good!" he said in surprise. Serenity smiled, and took another one. Mokuba snuck one quietly from her bowl, and she didn't notice. In this way he ate half of her cereal, maybe more.  
  
"Hmmm, that's strange," she said. She swirled her finger in a spiral around the bowl, searching for another Mini Wheat. "I should have more than that... Oh well."  
  
Taking a straw, she placed it in her bowl and sucked up the milk. Mokuba's eyes widened.  
  
"Can I do that too?" he asked, and Serenity laughed.  
  
"Sure," she said, getting up and getting the box. Mokuba took one, and eagerly sucked the milk out of his bowl. Serenity laughed. Watching from behind Mokuba where neither could see him, Kaiba watched with eyes filled with his regular cold face but a tint of warmth, and emotion none could explain.  
  
***  
  
"So," Serenity said, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "So the Crush Card, a Trap card, will infect the monsters with a virus that weakens them?"  
  
"Yup!" Mokuba said, handing her a virus card. She traced her fingers over it, thinking. "You can't play monsters that have over a certain number of attack points, cause they'll be sent to the Graveyard!"  
  
"If you brought them back from the graveyard would they still have the virus?"  
  
"Ummm. . . I'm not sure. You should ask Nii-sama about that."  
  
"Mmm," Serenity shrugged, picking up a card, and twirling it in her fingers. "And trap cards can kill a monster when they are activated?"  
  
"Yup! And that's usually when the monsters trying to attack it. They do other stuff too like trapping them, cutting their attack, stopping attacks completely."  
  
"Oh." Serenity nodded.  
  
"Sooooo." Mokuba continued, "Is it alright?"  
  
"It what alright?"  
  
"That I call you Seren?"  
  
"You can if you want."  
  
"Can I? Good."  
  
Serenity smiled, and then whispered to Mokuba, "Do you know what my secret name is?"  
  
"You have a secret name?" Mokuba breathed, as if she were admitting to him classified information. Kaiba shook his head: They were both loons.  
  
"Yeah," Serenity grinned. "But if I tell you, it wouldn't be secret."  
  
"Aw, c'mon! I won't tell Nii-sama! I swear! Please tell me!"  
  
"Hmmm. I don't know." Serenity sighed. "Your brother told me you weren't the best at keeping secrets."  
  
"Puh-lease?"  
  
"Okay. It's." she grinned and whispered something.  
  
"What?" Mokuba asked, confused.  
  
"Shizuka." Serenity smiled. "It means silent and peaceful. Don't you think it fits?"  
  
"Yeah!" Mokuba nodded, grinning. Serenity thoughtfully tapped the golden key around her neck against her hand. "Mine means wooden rocking horse. Nii- sama's means sea horse." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Or turmoil. I forget."  
  
"Ah." Serenity agreed. Kaiba had been waiting for Mokuba to finish for fifteen minutes now. "Okay, now, go with your brother."  
  
"Bye, Shizuka!" Mokuba cheered. He raced again out to the limo.  
  
"Goodbye," Serenity called down the hall, shivering suddenly. Kaiba got up, and dusted himself off. Serenity turned to the sound, confused. "Kaiba, your brother left. Aren't you going?"  
  
"Yes." He shot back, and she sighed. "I read your story."  
  
"W-what?" she suddenly stuttered. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Sands, I think you call it." Seto shrugged, and looked pointedly at her. "You should get it published. It's quite good. If you need any help getting it to an editor's desk. I can help you with that." Serenity flushed, and her eyes flashed, and focused on him. She opened her mouth, but before she could orally assault him, it fazed back to the meek, childish Serenity. Her eyes again clouded, and she pulled a hand through her hair. "Good-day." And with that, he left.  
  
***  
  
Joey Wheeler was having trouble sleeping. His girlfriend, Mai, was getting very fed up with him kicking her. Her usually perfect blonde hair was now rather messy, as she clutched the pillow around her head.  
  
"Go to sleep, Joey," she muttered, kicking him back. Sometimes he really despised how perfect his girlfriend really was, but his brain usually wasn't functioning well enough to figure this out.  
  
There was one thing keeping Joey Wheeler up. Who was in Japan with his sister? He didn't think about this long, unfortunately, because he may have inherited the looks, but he sure as heck hadn't inherited the brains.  
  
***  
  
Serenity Wheeler was anxious. Though she was mad that he had read her personal work, she wanted to know more of what he thought of it, if it really could hit the press. And if he read the other books. Lots of things.  
  
Ankh wanted to personally slaughter him. But Serenity assured her she didn't mind he read it. Ankh was very disbelieving.  
  
//Ooo, I'll wring that boy's neck!// Ankh announced. //Kill him myself. . . I swear! I will! Where did he get our password, anyway? That's not fair.//  
  
/Yami, he is a genius./  
  
//Yeah, self proclaimed. . .//  
  
/Yami!/  
  
//What? I'm probably right!//  
  
/Anyway, he probably knows how to work with computers. . . He could. . . Like, hack in or something./  
  
//He HACKED into our computer? How dare that dirty bastard!//  
  
/Yami!/  
  
//Well, he is!// Ankh pouted. //I don't care if he's Seth or not! I'll search out the jerk and make him pay! Let me take over!//  
  
/Ankh!/  
  
//You know he deserves it!//  
  
/Yes, but. . . If I get it published, it might get some more money for Mom. . . And maybe we can. . . Be a family again./  
  
//Sweetie, do you know what a divorce means?/  
  
/Yes, I do. But maybe Joey can come here to see me again, or. . . We could go to him./  
  
//Why are you so tied up on this 'family' deal?//  
  
/I don't want to talk about this Ankh./  
  
//I mean it hikari! You've been calling out to Joey again in your sleep.//  
  
/It's nothing, Yami. Don't worry about it./  
  
//Fine!// Ankh pouted. //Lock me up in my soul room! See if I care!//  
  
***  
  
Serenity sat in an old chair wringing her hands nervously. She anxiously awaited the Kaiba brothers arrival. She gently stroked Sakura's soft fur, and felt the wood underneath her. She had been told that she had always been impatient.  
  
When the doorbell rang (Only five times) she jumped up and practically threw herself at the door.  
  
"Hello?" she asked, wanting to make sure it was her charge and his older brother.  
  
"Shizuka!" Mokuba cheered, giving his baby sitter a hug. She smiled, and patted his head.  
  
"Hello, Mokuba." She said brightly. "How are you?"  
  
"Very good, thank-you!" Mokuba said primly, grinning up at the girl. Kaiba at the moment had no migrane, and was perfectly peaceable. At the moment, he was on the verge of a smile at Mokuba and Serenity. A Kodak moment, so to speak.  
  
"Is your brother here?" Serenity asked as Mokuba bounded in past her, almost knocking her over. "Is he?"  
  
Mokuba was too far gone to hear her question. Serenity sighed, and then felt her way down the wall. She collided with something: Probably something that her mom got from a garage sale. Startled, she stepped back, tripping over another box of things, ending up landing hard on her back.  
  
Serenity made a startled choking sound, the sound one makes when the air rushes out of you. No, she wasn't dead, but the wind was knocked out of her, so to speak. With a gasp she sucked air back in, restabling her breathing.  
  
She really hated it when she fell down. It hurt like the dickens, and she never felt better.  
  
"Ow, ow, ow. . ." Serenity cried out, feeling around for something to pull herself up with. All she found was a human hand. With an impatient tug, he jerked her up, resulting in Serenity almost falling again. This time she caught herself on the wall.  
  
Again, Mokuba came rushing in from nowhere.  
  
"Come on, Seren! Let's go to the park! Let's go!"  
  
"Where'd your brother go?" Serenity asked, feeling around for the young CEO.  
  
"Nii-sama?" Mokuba asked. He grabbed Serenity's hand, and placed it on top of Kaiba's face. Serenity immeadiately jerked away her hand, and Kaiba face turned beet red.  
  
"Yes, yes, I feel him now. . . Park?" Serenity spilled out, very embarressed, wringing her hand ferocuiosly, as if it were suddenly covered in poison. "I can't. . . Go. . . To the park. Can't see the way. . ."  
  
"Take Sakura! I'll help you! Puh-lease?"  
  
"Yes, yes, fine. . ." Serenity sighed. "Do you see my coat? It must be somewhere around here. . ." Her pale fingers danced nimbly across the wall, and she scooped it up. "Do you have a coat?"  
  
"Yup!" Mokuba beamed, adjusting the coat around his shoulders. Serenity felt extremely embaressed as she slipped on her coat. She prayed Mokuba would not ask Kaiba to come. . . To spare her. But nothing passes Mokuba! "Hey, Nii-sama, wanna come too?"  
  
The silence afterwards Serenity could almost garuntee was the older Kaiba rolling his eyes in distaste.  
  
"Whatever makes you happy," he sighed. Serenity felt around for her walking cane. He just had to ask, now didn't he?  
  
***  
  
^_______________^ Review! 


	6. An Odd Cure for Headaches

Ashiteru Matsudai Chapter Five: An Odd Cure for Headaches  
  
***  
  
Shimmie: Halooo.  
  
Silvie: Hi!  
  
Shimmie: It hasn't been updated in awhile, and of that I am ashamed. Sorry. But! To the reviewers!  
  
To Sam: Thanks, that gave me an extra boost of confidence. ^_^  
  
To Vicky: This update is for you! :) And, yes, you did review before.  
  
To Myrna: You are quite welcome! You were always a great reviewer; it was the least we could do. Use your internet prezies wisely, and I hope you like Chocolate!  
  
Black Mistress: O.o Did you call me . . . A good writer? *Faints*  
  
Amy: ^_^ Glad you think so. What? Shimmie? No, she's still fainted . . .  
  
Shimmie: X.X  
  
Silvie: u_u;; . . .  
  
Layla: That. . .was so beautiful, wonderful, In depth, and most of all. . . So Long!  
  
Silverstarz: Yeaaah, he can be the cutie when he wants, eh? ^___^  
  
ValarSpawn: My e-mail (The authoress, yes I'm not fainted anymore) is shimmersea@hotmail.com. How original. And Silvie's, my counterpart, ladysilverdragon@hotmail.com. ^_^ Original name. . .  
  
Ayrll: You are sooo sweet. ^_^ That is the nicest review I've seen in a long time.  
  
AnimeGurl: I have not read the Merlin Series, but LSD has. And thanks for the review!  
  
Setine: Another long review! We have a record here.  
  
Gabie: Well, your wait is over! How great is that?  
  
ThunderBird: Thank you! And why is everyone drawn to a blushing Kaiba?  
  
Wendy: Thanks I am. ^_^  
  
***  
  
Getting to the park was not the problem. They crossed the three intersections quite safetly, and made it all the way to the small park, (Also the only one Serenity knew of) And Mokuba brought Serenity to a bench.  
  
"You just sit here, okay, Seren?" Mokuba told her. Serenity smiled.  
  
"Joey used to call me that. . ." She said idly, and almost cried, remembering her brother. Ankh rose to the occasion.  
  
//Ooo, going to cry? Why is it aibou? Tell me! I can help!//  
  
/Ankh. . ./  
  
//Please tell me. You can't hide things like that!//  
  
/I'll- I'll tell you. But not right now. Please? I can't. . . I will. I will!/  
  
//Alright, hikari, but I'm trusting you.//  
  
Mokuba coughed, and then ran off. Serenity blank eyes darted everywhere, but seeing nothing, she soon resulted in closing them, and softly petting Sakura's fur.  
  
"I'm usually not one to make conversations," Kaiba suddenly interrupted, startling Serenity.  
  
"Then why did you start one?" Ankh snapped back, eyes flashing. She folded her arms angrily.  
  
"Just. . . A random question." Kaiba said, eyebrow almost to his hair line. "Why do your eyes change color?"  
  
"Weeeeeell, genius boy, I'm sure you've heard of Yugi Motou? Shouldn't you be able to figure it out yourself?" Serenity winked, tapping her golden Ankh to her chin. "It's pretty sad."  
  
/Yugi? What does Yugi have to do with this?!/ Serenity yelled from the depths of her own mind. /ANKH!/  
  
Serenity's eyes flashed again, and the sight drained away.  
  
"I'm so. . . Sorry. . . Must go." Serenity said, suddenly rising. Kaiba rolled his eyes.  
  
"Where to?"  
  
"Home."  
  
"You don't know the way."  
  
"Sakura will help me."  
  
"Mokuba's playing with the dog right now."  
  
"Is he?"  
  
"Yes," Kaiba growled. But Serenity, and this was not Ankh mind you, Seren herself making a very rowdy argument.  
  
"I couldn't care less."  
  
"You should. You'll kill yourself."  
  
"Maybe. Don't care."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Must go."  
  
"Do you always speak in uncompleted sentences?"  
  
"No. I don't. Not that I'm aware of. . ."  
  
"It seems like it."  
  
"Besides the point! Leaving!"  
  
"Fine."  
  
"Fine."  
  
Serenity rushed off. Kaiba sighed. She had emotional issues.  
  
"Nii-sama!" Mokuba cried, suddenly popping up. "Walk her home!"  
  
"What?" Kaiba growled.  
  
"Walk her home!"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Cause!"  
  
"No."  
  
"Please?"  
  
"Mokuba. . ."  
  
"Puh-lease?"  
  
"Mokuba-"  
  
"I KNOW A SONG THAT GETS ON EVERYBODY'S NERVES, EVERYBODY'S NERVES, EVREYBODYS NERVERS!!! I KNOW A-"  
  
"MOKUBA!"  
  
"EVERYBODY'S NERVES!"  
  
"FINE!"  
  
Then, triumphant, Mokuba beamed, and pointed in the direction Serenity had left. Kaiba gave him one last glare before stomping off in that direction. Mokuba grinned.  
  
"I think we gottem!"  
  
//Ka-ching!//  
  
(:Check and Mate.:)  
  
And if All three had been in the same dimension, they would have made a group High Five.  
  
***  
  
Serenity angrily stomped across the sidewalk. Turn . . . Where was it . . . There! She swiftly swiveled, going into a rather smelly alley.  
  
"Ugh," Serenity moaned, pinching her nose. "Wrong turn." Gingerly touching the wall. Quietly she trudged through the dirty alley. About ten minutes later, she was totally, and completely lost. "If. . . I keep going on the right side, I have to come out some time!" She declared to the empty alley. Or maybe not so- Her fingers collided with something warm- and squishy.  
  
"Oh- OH!" Serenity gasped, thoroughly ashamed. "You're not a wall, are you? Pardon me!"  
  
"Why pardon you? Why don't you just stay right here?"  
  
"Umm, I have to get home. . ."  
  
"Come on!" A different voice said, a whisper straight next to her ear, stale breath overwhelming her senses. "Just a little taste. . ."  
  
"You wouldn't hurt a blind girl, would you?" Serenity asked nervously.  
  
"Oh, but you're such a pretty blind girl!" a third voice stated, as he grabbed her walking stick.  
  
//Hikari. . .//  
  
/Give me your sight, Ankh./  
  
In the dark alleyway, no one could see Serenity's eyes flash, and meld together, a blend of light and dark purple. Ankh had no idea what this was for, but Serenity seemed to know.  
  
***  
  
Kaiba supposed he should help her. It was the "good deed" everyone expected him to do. But maybe they were just friends. . . He'd wait a minute or two. Serenity seemed 'oh so frightened' as one grabbed for her hair, but grabbing his fist and putting her thumb in the crease of his elbow, and twirling under his arm and lifting it high above a comfortable place. A crack of bone sounded, and she dropped him like a piece of garbage.  
  
"Who's next?" She asked the other four men behind her. "Want a piece?"  
  
After disabling them all, Serenity seemed to hold her hand for a second.  
  
Kaiba was not at all astonished. He was trained in more than six martial arts: She had the skills of about a blue belt of Tae-Kwon-Do. Maybe she deserved a little . . . What to call it? Test?  
  
As did the first man, he grabbed her hair. She twirled faster than he could imagine, and held his arm directly a centimeter lower than what would dislocate it.  
  
"Fool," she whispered. "Don't mess with a former black-belt."  
  
"Okay, I get the point!" Kaiba growled, yanking his arm free. He turned around to face the girl, her eyes meeting his face.  
  
"Kaiba?" she whispered, and her eyes flashed.  
  
"Oh, now look what you did!" Ankh said ferociously. "She's run away to her soul room! Certainly a charmer, ain't we?!"  
  
***  
  
"What did you just say?" Kaiba quirked. Serenity- Or, the rude, seeing one, snorted.  
  
"Soul. Room. She ran away!" She said, tossing an amber strand over her shoulder. "I told her to come out, but-"  
  
"But what?" Kaiba retorted, not to be outdone by the spirit.  
  
"Won't." Ankh sighed, staring at her fingernails. "She should really get theses cut."  
  
/Oh, Ankh, how could you?/ Serenity wailed from behind the large door of her soul room. /This was supposed to be a secret, he'll tell government officials, they'll try to separate us, do horrible things. And. And./  
  
//And what?//  
  
/YOU'VE MORTALLY OFFENDED HIM!!!/  
  
Serenity sighed (Or Ankh) and glanced again at the momentarily forgotten Kaiba.  
  
"She says I mortally offended you. Which is completely out of the question, seeing as she is the Tae-Kwon-Do master, NOT me. But anyways." Ankh sighed. Again.  
  
"Mortally- offended me?" Kaiba asked, rather confused for a genius.  
  
"Yeah, she's totally whipped." Ankh growled. "How dare you Seth-boy! She hasn't stopped talking about you since you and that adorable little brother of yours came! 'Oh, Kaiba's so kind, he pushed my laptop to me, what a gentleman.' But let me tell you this- YOU'RE NO GENTLEMAN!"  
  
"Thanks," Kaiba muttered.  
  
/Ankh, stop it! Your only making it worse!!/ Bawled Serenity from the inner depths of her own mind.  
  
"Oh, now she's mad at me!" Ankh pouted. "You're a baaad influence, did you know that? She used to be so quiet and meek, and now look at her!"  
  
"Tell her I'm not mortally offended."  
  
/He's lying! I know it!/  
  
"She thinks you're lying," Ankh retorted, stomping her foot. "So damn ready to start an argument, she is-"  
  
"I mean it! I'm not offended." Kaiba yelled.  
  
/He's lying! He's such a gentleman, trying to cover it up!/ Serenity wailed, and then a resounding 'thunk' signified she had thrown something.  
  
"Give her a guarantee," Ankh suggested.  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"I don't know." Ankh said, tapping her chin. "Maybe. That's it! Tell her your name!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You know, first name? Or last, in Japanese terms. Anyways! Tell her!"  
  
"What if I do and she still won't come out?!"  
  
//Seren, sweetling, if he tells you his name, will you come out?//  
  
All she got in return was a resounding sniffle. Kaiba sighed.  
  
"My name is Seto Kaiba, CEO of the Kaiba Corporation."  
  
/He's. Seto Kaiba?! HOW COULD YOU HAVE MORTALLY OFFENDED SETO KAIBA?!/ Ankh winced.  
  
"Well Seto-Seth-boy, you just made matters worse," Ankh drawled.  
  
"We had a deal; I tell my name, she comes out."  
  
/I didn't say WHEN I'd come out, now did I?/ Serenity hissed.  
  
"Eh, she's hissing. Very bad for me," Ankh sighed. Seto felt the need to sigh as well, but didn't give in. He did pinch the bridge of his nose though; another day, another migraine. Why in Kami-sama's name was he allergic to aspirin?!?!?!  
  
/Oh, oh, he's got a headache!/ Serenity shrieked. /Tell him to have a glass of ice-cold lemonade and some rainbow sherbet! It always makes it better! And eat the ice cream fast, you want a brain freeze!/  
  
//Why?// Ankh pondered.  
  
/To make his migraine go away, silly!/ Serenity replied. /Mom told me about it. And it's true. It does work! Tell him!/  
  
//Tell him yourself!//  
  
/Ooo, I don't think so,/ Serenity sighed.  
  
//Come on, Hikari! Tell him!//  
  
Again, Serenity's eyes flashed, and Serenity stood meekly blushing.  
  
"Please forgive- My yami. . . Uh, Ankh tends to be a little overwhelming." She whispered timidly. "And- And, I know a way to cure your. Headache."  
  
"How is that?" Seto sighed, rubbing his forehead.  
  
"Have some lemonade. And, and, eat some rainbow sherbet, and get a brain freeze. It helps."  
  
"Does it?" Seto sighed. "Sugar is-"  
  
"Very addictive, yes, but it helps. I know a place where you can get both. If you want to come."  
  
"What about-"  
  
"Heeeel-ooooo, Nii-Sama!" Mokuba interrupted, grinning. "Whatcha doing?"  
  
***  
  
//Hee, this plan of yours is working perfectly!//  
  
(:I know! And hopefully, nobody'll care that she's. Not with that freaky haired dude.:)  
  
"Shizuka's. Supposed to be with Tristan?!"  
  
(:Yeah, I know, isn't it gross? And besides, Seto-kun really needs someone to talk to about. That.:)  
  
"Yeah. That."  
  
//....Wha?//  
  
"It's nothing Ankh. Eh, we better get back though; I bet they're suspicious as to why we're so quiet."  
  
//Oops! You're right!//  
  
(:I need to get back to working on my. Little problem as well.:)  
  
//Honey, are you still stuck on the problem with the Millennium Rod?//  
  
(:No duh. If I don't hurry up and solve it, there's gonna be a major rip in destiny that I don't think I can fix.:)  
  
"Goody! I'll finally meet Seth!"  
  
//And I'm sure he's just as gleeful to meet you too. C'mon; let's go!//  
  
***  
  
Serenity's hands were silently folding her napkin, trying not to seem too opposing to the eating Kaiba brothers. A grilled cheese sandwhich sat untouched before her. She was waiting for someone to strike up a topic. Which no one had. She was very embarressed about the whole Yami/Hikari blah blah incident.  
  
//He's drinking his lemonade,// Ankh perked. //He actually listened to you!//  
  
/Did he?/ Serenity asked, with a soft sigh.  
  
//Yup, and he's ordered rainbow sherbert too. You should eat your food.//  
  
/I'm not hungry,/ Serenity said softly.  
  
"So. How did you like it?" Serenity asked, breaking the silence, but not the ice.  
  
"Hmmm?" Seto murmured, as his sore head lessened somehow.  
  
"Sands. How did you like it, Kaiba?" Serenity urged. She gingerly nibled on a fry.  
  
"I gave you my name," he sighed.  
  
"Yes, but not the permission to use it."  
  
"Y\ou may call me by my first name."  
  
"Fine, fine, how did you like it?" Serenity asked impatiently.  
  
"It- Was suprisingly good," Kaiba shrugged. More silence. Serenity fumbled again with her napkin.  
  
"Did you read Whirlwind, and, and- Uh, what is it. Yes! Storms?" She asked eagerly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Did you read the other books?"  
  
"No- I haven't."  
  
"Would you, please?" Serenity begged. "It would mean so much to me if I could get them published, and it would help my mom so much."  
  
"Yeah, I'll read them." Kaiba sighed.  
  
"Here's your ice cream," a woman said, and a clink sounded as she placed it on the table. "Anything else?"  
  
"Um, not that I know of," Serenity answered.  
  
"Seren wants a piece of chocolate mouse pie!" Mokuba suddenly interrupted. "Make that two, please!"  
  
"Will do!" The woman said, turning and leaving. Seto raised an eyebrow at the creamy colorful pasturized dairy in front of him, and took a small bite. Serenity was now daintily chewing on her grilled cheese.  
  
"We had gelato in Rome once," Mokuba quirked, helping himself to a pile of Serenity's fries.  
  
"Did you now?" Serenity smiled, removing the crust.  
  
"Yep! I stayed awake for three days!" Mokuba grinned, and Kaiba's migrane almost came back in memory. "But Ni-sama stayed up for a whole week!"  
  
"Really?" Serenity asked, sounding totally enthralled.  
  
"Here's your desert!" the waitress said, placing down the two pieces of pie. Mokuba slid a plate in front of Serenity, and gave her a fork.  
  
"Can you eat all of it by yourself?" he asked. "If not, I can help you-"  
  
"I can do it, but I'd rather a spoon instead. Will you please pass me one?"  
  
"Sure!" Mokuba stole his brothers spoon and placed it in Serenity's hands. "There!"  
  
"Thank-you, Mokuba." Serenity chirped cheerfully, taking a bite. Seto, during this time, had finished his sherbert, and found his migrane to be. Gone. If he had been anyone else, he would have dancing a gleeful dance of joy. But he was Seto Kaiba, so he stayed in his seat, and his opinion of one Serenity Wheeler was upped a notch.  
  
"Here's the bill, and there's a box for you, miss." The waitress said, placing the box in front of Mokuba, who put the meal in it. Serenity had finished her pie, and was now digging in her pocket.  
  
"Here's my card." She said, once finding a debit card. "How much is it?"  
  
"43.93," the waitress said.  
  
"Oh," Serenity said, flushing. "Goodness. When did you get so- Uh, such good food?"  
  
Kaiba, who never really cared about prices, noticed how bluntly Serenity was trying to cover up her goof. She was too polite, the was certain. He pulled out his own card, and gave it to the waitress.  
  
"Okay, I'll be right back with your card!" She said, taking it.  
  
"But wait! You forgot the card!" Serenity called after her. "Well that's odd. Don't you think Mokuba?"  
  
Mokuba snickered, but agreed.  
  
*** 


	7. Stormy Weather

Ashiteru Matsudai Chapter Six: Stormy Weather  
  
***  
  
"What a fancy car you have!" Serenity trilled, from where she sat on a leather upholstered limo seat. Mokuba was silently swinging his feet, and Seto was very happy, seeing his migrane was gone. "I've never felt anything like it!"  
  
Serenity pale face was tinted slightly with a pink hue, and her clouded green eyes danced. Her aburn hair was done in a braid and tied back. She was very pretty, in her own way.  
  
"Oh! Are we here already?" Serenity chirped as a little bell dinged. "Wow!"  
  
Mokuba helped her out, and Kaiba instructed his limo driver to take Sakura into the house. He pulled out his cell-phone, and dailed a number.  
  
"Mr. Kaiba! What can I do for you?"  
  
"Tell the cook to learn how to make rainbow sherbert and lemonade."  
  
"Yes sir!"  
  
***  
  
Serenity listened contently as Seto told her what he thought. He had spent the entire day with her, talking about Sands, telling her ways on how she could improve, and arguing with Ankh.  
  
"Do you actually think anyone will buy them?" She murmured, stroking Mokuba's hair. He had been out since 3:00.  
  
"I believe so," Kaiba shrugged, glancing back at the computer screen. "It's very well written."  
  
"And very well edited," Serenity chimed. "Thank-you very much."  
  
"It doesn't matter," Kaiba replied off-handedly. "Mokuba really likes you."  
  
//Flashback//  
  
"You should have seen him Seren!" Joey crowed from the other line. "The great Seto Kaiba, on the ground, hugging his little brother! Getting that expenisive white trenchcoat- where in heck does he get those things?- Anyways, he was getting it all dirty! It was a hoot!"  
  
"But Joey," Serenity said, voice strained. "Wouldn't you do the same for me?"  
  
"Sure, Seren. Yeah, I would! It's just that, Seto Kaiba, multi-billionaire, could care so much for a little kid? It's just... Kaiba would never do that! He's a complete asshole, and dat... It was... Eh, yeah."  
  
//Flashback//  
  
"You are a very good big brother," Serenity said softly. "He loves you very much."  
  
"Yeah, well," Kaiba said, trying to get off the subject.  
  
"You're lucky you can be together. I rarely ever get to see Joey. I miss him. I wish he knew how sorry I was- For-"  
  
//What is it little Hikari?"//  
  
"Sorry for what?" Kaiba pried.  
  
"Nothing, nothing..." Serenity whispered. She patted his hand. "You needn't mind, it's nothing. But thank-you!" Serenity gave him a smile. "It's just that- I miss having someone to comfort me, give me a hug when I need it, convince me nothing's going to happen... But he's gone now. And a long distance phone call just isn't the same."  
  
Serenity ended in a whisper. Kaiba didn't say anything: It was just one of those times when it was better to do than to say. He silently nodded.  
  
//Hug him, Hikari! Go for it!//  
  
Serenity silently gave him a hug, following her yami's advice. Nothing big- Just a- hug. Kaiba was stunned- But he, for some reason unknown to himself, he allowed it.  
  
"I miss him so much," she whispered from the depths of his trenchcoat. She sniffled, but stopped herself from crying. Crying would be too emotional.  
  
Mokuba silently grinned from under his blanket.  
  
(:Bingo.:) whispered the oh-so-familiar voice of his onee-chan that he never had. (:Now... You go to bed Mokuba, you have an important part to play on the morrow...:)  
  
***  
  
"So..." Serenity asked, stirring her Frosted Mini Wheats idly. "Don't you have a father, Mokuba?" She didn't hear anything, but the whooshing of Mokuba's legs stopped from under the table.  
  
"I did..." the little boy cautiously said.  
  
//Hikari... This might be dangerous ground you're treading on...// Ankh warned.  
  
"What do you mean, 'did'?" Serenity asked, ignoring Ankh.  
  
"Papa died in a car crash..." Mokuba said, obviously taking care in the words he chose. "And Gozaburo fell out a window."  
  
"Gozaburo?"  
  
"...My step-father."  
  
That was a shock; she didn't know the Kaiba brothers were adopted.  
  
//Aibou...// Ankh whispered frantically in her mind. //I don't think Mokuba wants to talk about this. I really don't. He feels... Uncomfortable.// Usually, when Ankh told her what others were feeling, Serenity would have followed the former Healer's advice, but this... She had a feeling that this needed to happen.  
  
"What was he like?" she asked.  
  
"I hated him," Mokuba told her, in the coldest voice she had ever heard him use.  
  
"You shouldn't hate anyone," she admonished him gently, feeling a huge twinge of guilt in her heart. "Hate only leads to violence... And we already have enough of that in the world."  
  
"You're not the boss of me," Mokuba hissed. Serenity winced. Bright, cheerful, and happy Mokuba, hissing at her? This was some serious stuff...  
  
//Hikari, please!// Ankh begged. //Don't bring this up! He hurts so much...// Ankh was referring to Mokuba's emotions; she could feel them as acutely as she did her own...  
  
/Then he needs to talk about it./ Serenity stated firmly.  
  
"This... Gozaburo couldn't really have been that bad... You probably just miss your real father."  
  
"I don't miss him!" Mokuba yelled, and he slammed his spoon on the table. "I don't even REMEMBER my real father!"  
  
"Then you should have no reason to hate him then," Serenity told him calmly, although she herself felt a knot of guilt in the pit of her stomach, and she was most certainly not calm.  
  
"I have EVERY reason to hate him!" Mokuba yelled. "He... He hurt Nii-sama! You don't understand at ALL! I'M GLAD NII-SAMA PUSHED HIM OUT THAT WINDOW!"  
  
Serenity paled.  
  
"Your brother. . . Pushed? Him out the window?"  
  
"Yes. He did. And I'm proud. Glad! You wouldn't know anything about it."  
  
"You shouldn't jump to conclusions. You have no idea if I do or I don't, do you?" Serenity continued, changing the subject, suddering at the mear thought of murder.  
  
"No," Mokuba pouted.  
  
"He couldn't be half as bad as my father," Serenity said slowly, squinting her blank eyes shut. Just the memory of him- Scared her to death.  
  
//Why does he scare you like that?//  
  
/Sush Ankh./  
  
"He- He was mean... Gozaburo, that is." Mokuba whispered fearfully. "And- And... He was mean to Nii-sama... I- I-I..." Mokuba stiffened, his eyes welled up, and he burst into tears, making Serenity's heart ache. "ASK NII- SAMA! HE CAN TELL YOU BETTER!" he wailed, and with that, Mokuba sniffed, and cried.  
  
"Oh, Darling, I'm sorry. . ." Serenity whispered. "Come here." Mokuba collapsed into her, and she pressed a kiss into his messy black hair. "No little boy should be treated like that. . . Oh darling..." She comforted him. "If anything happens, know that you, I'll do anything to help... Anything to keep you safe... I'm so sorry..."  
  
How can in such a short time, could I care for both of them so much? Serenity thought. She held Mokuba close to her, letting the tiny child sob into her, knowing that she was his only other confident other then his brother... After much soothing, Mokuba calmed down. But Serenity held on to him, and after awhile, he fell asleep.  
  
***  
  
Four hours later when Kaiba arrived, Serenity was still staring off into the distance and rocking Mokuba, silently... Crying? At least, she had been crying at one time, for tear stains ran down her face. It was rather cold in the room, and an old coat was covering Mokuba. It was eleven o'clock, and cereal bowls were left forgotten on the table... Had they even eaten anything.  
  
Ankh must have told her he was there, because Serenity sighed.  
  
"You poor things. Mokuba told me about... Your stepfather. He told me he fell out a window."  
  
Gozaburo. Yes... Mokuba wasn't one to lie, was he? He... Just wanted to forget...  
  
"Tell her, Nii-sama. Please?" Mokuba asked, turning .  
  
//Mokuba, this isn't part of the plan!// Ankh shrilly reminded the boy.  
  
(: Let him...:) his older sister whispered; Mokuba couldn't speak mentally, but he could hear... And hear he did. (:Seto-kun needs to let it out...:)  
  
"That's fairly accurate," Kaiba shrugged. "Him falling out the window, I mean. He did."  
  
"Yes, yes," Serenity murmured, and Mokuba got up. "My bedroom is the second one on the right," she whispered. Mokuba glanced at his big brother, eyes demanding he tell her. Then he silently trudged out. Serenity stood up, and silently made her way to the older brother of the boy who had wormed his way into her life.  
  
"He told you, didn't he," Kaiba said. Not asked. It was a fact, and they both knew it.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"...I just want to forget that man..."  
  
"Don't we all?" Serenity whispered. She swore, for that moment, she had Ankh's power of feeling emotions... She could feel Seto's pain and despair... "Don't we all want to forget the one who hurts us? The one who makes us feel pain we do not deserve?" Ankh had closed her mind off from Serenity's. Still though, Serenity could hear the garbled thoughts of her other...  
  
Seth... I failed you...  
  
"Hai."  
  
Serenity wished that she could be as open as she could be with Mokuba... Mokuba was so simple compared to his brother... Seto... Was complex. Unfathomable.  
  
"...Do you want to talk about it?" she finally asked.  
  
"Yes... And no." he replied. She heard the click of him opening a laptop.  
  
"What...Are you doing?" she asked him.  
  
"...I'm reading Storms..."  
  
He... Was checking her book... The book of Ankh's memories of the time when they were one...  
  
"We'll talk while you work," Serenity told him, and put her hand on (hopefully) his shoulder. For a few moments, Serenity heard nothing except the diligent clacking of the computer keys. If she could see, she would have seen something that was probably a once-in-a-lifetime event- Seto Kaiba was letting his pain show up on his face. Not crying. Not yet.  
  
"He only adopted us because of me... Of my intellegence..." he told her, his voice numb. "That's what they all wanted... They didn't care... Didn't want to care..." He took in a deep breath. It was hard for him... But... It wasn't that hard. "When he came, in his big shiny car, I remember, it was black, I almost had lost the hope that Mokuba and I would stay together..."  
  
"You care about him... A lot, don't you..." Serenity whispered.  
  
"Yes, I do." Seto sighed. "Anyways, we made this deal. . . As long as I did what he said, Mokuba would be safe."  
  
"Was he?" Serenity interrupted. "I mean, truly?"  
  
"Yes, for the most part," Kaiba shrugged. "To my knowledge, Mokuba was never harmed- Physically. Emotionally he was battered by the way he saw me. Somethimes tried to stop Gozaburo. He'd only punish me more. One thing I can say about him, is he usually keeps a promise."  
  
Serenity was silent, not knowing if she should comfort him, or br silent and understanding. Quiet, and motionless.  
  
"He brought us home to a large decked up house- Started out real nice, took us to Disney World, and I thought I had actually found someone who could take care of us. . . But once the authorites left, he turned spiteful. He'd hit me at the slightest sigh, and he. . . did this." A bit of shuffling, and then Kaiba jerkily grabbed her hand and placed it on a slightly raised mark. Her fingers breezed over it.  
  
"This. . . Is the property of Gozaburo Kaiba. . . If. . . If lost, please return. . . Immeadiately?" She whispered. Kaiba nodded numbly.  
  
//By Ra. . .//  
  
"I hated him. More than a person should be able to hate. And he deserved what he got."  
  
***  
  
A/N (Author Note): WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Stomp! Stomp Gozaburo!!! *Authors begin to wildly stomp Gozaburo* Wait. . . *Stomp Gozaburo wearing GOLF SHOES!*  
  
"You poor thing," Serenity whispered, blindly feeling for him. Once feeling him, she gently gave him a hug, leaning her head in his hair. "Poor thing. No one should have to live through that." Kaiba struggled for a moment, and his own fingers touched a weird imbrasion on her foot. She quickly jerked it away, so he slightly relaxed in her embrace. It felt good to be comforted like that. It was like. . . She knew just how he felt. That. . . He supposed was a good thing. Because no matter how much Mokuba hated Gozaburo, he would never. . . Could never, hate him as much as Seto himself did.  
  
***  
  
Storms. Serenity HATED storms. Rocking herself slowly back and forth on her bed, humming 'Rain, rain, go away.' Trying to ingore the pounding rain. She was still deeply disturbed by Seto and Mokuba's adoptive father.  
  
//Tell me Serenity! You've avoided it long enough!//  
  
/Avoided what?/ Serenity whimpered mentally.  
  
//Why you are so obsessed with family!//  
  
/Ankh, this is NOT the time./  
  
//Make it the time! I want to know!//  
  
/Ankh. . ./  
  
//You are just afraid! I knew it! You can't show your emotions to anybody, not even another part of yourself!//  
  
/I do not! Don't say things you can't prove!/  
  
//. . . I can so! Like- Like. . . You can't tell me why you are you big on family! I thought Yugi's friend Tea was the only 'friend and family' worshiper!//  
  
/I think your head has inflated itself ten times its normal size!/  
  
//And you can't tell that Kaiba boy how you feel about him!//  
  
/ . . . /  
  
//Ah ha! Every time he speaks you have a little heart above your head! Well, not litterally anyways. BUT MENTALLY!//  
  
/YOU NOSY LITTLE SNANK!! GET YOUR STINKING ASS OUT OF MY THOUGHTS!/ Serenity bellowed angrily, mentally pushing Ankh's presence back. /I NEVER ASKED FOR A YAMI LIKE YOU, ANYWAY!/  
  
Thunder.  
  
***  
  
The next chapter is the LAST ONE! Duuuuuude! 


	8. Ashiteru Matsudai

Ashiteru Matsudai Chapter Seven: Ashiteru. . . Matsudai  
  
***  
  
The next morning, the mentioning of Gozaburo Kaiba seemed to have flown over Mokuba's head.  
  
"Hi, Seren-i-ninny!" Mokuba trilled the second she opened the door.  
  
"What?" She asked, unfamiliar with his newest nickname. So far he called her Seren, Shizuka, Shiz, Shizzy, Uka, Uka-chan, Ukako, and now Seren-i- ninny. She smiled softly, and Mokuba bounced in.  
  
"I'm bringing YOU somewhere today." He anounced proudly.  
  
"Are you?" Serenity asked, as Sakura bounded in by her side. Mokuba grinned and nodded feverishly.  
  
"Yup! We passed by it the other day and well I wanted to go!"  
  
"What is it? An amusement park?"  
  
"Nope. You'll see." Mokuba said. After a bit of shuffling, and Mokuba helping her with her coat, the were ready to go. Serenity opened the door, one hand tightly grasping Sakura's leash.  
  
She hated to go outside. She was always afraid of hitting something, falling, getting stuck where no one could come help her. . . A slight shiver ran up and down her spine, but she did her best to ignore it. She plastered a convincing smile on her face, and answered brightly to Mokuba's quanderings, but otherwise was silent. The walk took rather long, but she was silent. Mokuba, though, chittered and chattered the whole walk.  
  
"Here we are!" He said finally, and her smile faltered. This did not seem like a place a little boy would want to go to. The smell itself was horrid, though she couldn't say her own home was much better. And after briefly touching the wall of the doorframe they had come in, it was rough, and splintery, and she could feel the soft, dry substance she knew to be dust resting on her fingertips. She had been expecting something more like a park, or a museum, though going to a museum wouldn't be much fun for a blind person. . . Anyway, she had been expecting something Seto would have approved of. Just one touch gave her a tell-tale sign that it was unlikely permission was given to a certain over-excited little boy, who was at the moment, 'Oooh!' ing and "Ahhhh!" ing just like one would do at a zoo.  
  
"Mo-ku-ba. . ." She began in a threating, older person tone, "Were you allowed to come here?"  
  
"Uhh. . ." Mokuba faltered, and she heard him scuff his foot, and cough lightly. "Sure I was! Nii-sama has just- Never had the time! Yeah! That's it!"  
  
"Mokuba, for some reason, I can't fully believe you."  
  
"Wha?" Mokuba flustered. "Why is that? I can't believe you, not believing me. . ."  
  
"Mokuba," she again stated firmly. "Were you allowed to come here?"  
  
"Weeeeeell. . . ." Mokuba began, dragging it out consideribly longer than normal, one of the tell-tale signs he was nervous. "Sortakindamaybewellnonotreally."  
  
Most people not be able to deciver this, but being a little sibling herself, Serenity was used to running words together as such and thus, understood perfectly.  
  
"Mokuba! I knew it! We have to go back immeadiately!"  
  
"Awwww, Shizzy! C'mon! You're an adult, aren't you? We should be okay!" Mokuba pestered.  
  
"Mokuba!" Serenity trilled unhappily. "We have to go!"  
  
"Oh-kay." Mokuba said, soundly as if the world had suddenly crashed down around him, everything completely and utterly destroyed. "Shizzy, watch out!"  
  
Serenity's face twisted into confusion. What was he talking about? Usually, she would have thought that it was a joke, to get them to stay longer, but the tone of urgency in his voice frightened her. There must be something going terribly wrong for him to talk like that. And, Sakura was barking on the top of her little doggy lungs. A sudden, rough grab of her shoulder surprised her, but using her technique learned in the martial arts department, by acting quickly, she dislocated his arm.  
  
"Holy shit!" The man she had dislocated screeched out.  
  
"Mokuba!" Serenity shrieked, pushing her attacker into a wall.  
  
"Seren! Over here! Eeep!" Mokuba called out.  
  
"Sakura, Mokuba!" Serenity instructed, but before Sakura could stop pulling, two more men confronted her.  
  
"What's she here for? I thought we were here for the brat." The man asked stupidly.  
  
"I dunno. Boss didn't plan on her being here. . . So he won't want her. . ."  
  
Serenity didn't hesitated for them to elaborate on her plan. With a loud yell, she kicked one into a wall, then the other she broke the shoulder blade.  
  
"Mokuba!" She again called, stumbling ahead, again being tugged by Sakura. "MOKUBA!"  
  
With one persitant jerk, Sakura pulled her to the ground. Serenity felt around softly, and the warmth of a body met her fingers.  
  
"Oh, god Mokuba! What have they done to you?!" She cried out, clutching the little boy to her chest. Sakura suddenly yelped, and a thud told Serenity her faithful compainon was out and on the floor. She twisted her head around vigourously, long loose hair swinging around her, blank eyes looking desperately for the danger she couldn't see. Swiftly she was knocked into the wall, the breath rushing out of her.  
  
"What a pain in the ass you are," a mans husky voice said in her ear, and a rocking shiver rushed through her whole body. He was almost smothering her with his scent- Which wasn't a good scent at all. His musky hands, large as hands, were greedily tugging at her shirt. And a throbbing pain rushing through the whole of her left arm. It was numb, but she was sure that a sharp something, most likely glass, that had been attached to the wall, was now all the way through her arm, and a small chip kept her arm stationary.  
  
She closed her eyes as he felt around her body, slightly grimacing.  
  
"Didn't your mother tell you not to touch whats not yours?" She asked, after steadily kneeing him in the groin, and kicking him over the head as he went down. "MOKUBA!"  
  
Tugging desperately at her arm, covered in a sticky wetness, trying to get free. She heard two more thumps, and she shivered as if they were footsteps aproaching her. But otherwise, it was totally silent. She silently tugged at her arm, hoping, praying, that it wasn't more people to attack them.  
  
"MOKUBA!" She yelled again, though it wouldn't do her much good, he was obviously either to stunned to speak or unconsious. She had felt his steady heartbeat when she had touched him. But if there was more attackers, calling out would just bring them straight to her location. . . She bit her lip, pondering what to do.Her arm was stuck steadier than Hades. Wait a second. She was a third degree black belt before she had to quit due to a certain problem. Who gave a shit! She could knock them down with ease, even with the obstacle of being blind and stuck to this wall. "MOKUBA!!"  
  
No reply. Serenity took a deep breath, acknowledging the pain she had to take to get free. Leaning forward, basically suspending herself sideways, the only thing keeping her up was the shard of glass. Searing pain raced throughout her body, and suddenly she fell to the ground. She lie there for a second, bitting down the extreme pain bracing through her, she realized there was no way she could walk. So silently crawling, shouting "MOKUBA!" as loud as she possibly could.  
  
She had something like a plan: She had been pushed one way, so Mokuba's body had to be this way, didn't it? Clutching her injured arm to her chest, she silently inched along, besides her screams for help and for Mokuba. But after a while, she ran into a wall: With no body of Mokuba in sight- Or in touch.  
  
/Did they actually get him? Where is he? The poor thing, I couldn't help, I am useless, it's all my fault, I'm blind, I could have saved him. . ./ Serenity silently wept, salty tears streaking down her dirty face.  
  
"MOKUBA!" She called shrilly. "MOKUBA!" Her voice was hoarse, but she didn't care. She had to find him, had to. . .  
  
After awhile, she colapsed, tears running down her cheeks, unable to speak. She pounded her head into the ground, weeping. /Mokuba, my fault, Mokuba, Seto, My fault, never find him again, my fault. . ./ Were her jumbled thoughts, and a choking sound emitted from her rusty throat. Definitely not expecting what came next.  
  
With a whoosing sound, someone swiftly pinned her against a metal fence. The sharp points of the thing again knocked what little breath she had. The familiar husky voice of the ecchi attacker again wisped through her.  
  
"You're a downright bitch, you know that?" he husked in her ear, the scent of blood now mingled with his overall scent. She grimaced again, as his hands found something a man SHOULD NOT TOUCH. Specially without permission. Serenity was trying to summon the strength to blow him off, but she couldn't find it. But she didn't want to sit here, be raped. . . Like. . . Like. . .  
  
No. She could not think about that right now. It would only make things worse. She had to be strong, so she could find Mokuba. . . Get him to the hospital. . . So summoning all her strength, she pulled up her leg, and kicked him away as fiercly as she could. A weak croak that would have been a yell emitted her throat. A firm thud and a slide told her he had slammed into a wall and slunk to the floor told her he was out. But that was all she could listen to, as the fence, which obviously was the rail to a balcony- fell. She could say how far it fell, but it seemed like ages.  
  
Then, she hit ground. And the force brought deep spikes through her rather frail body, gutting her through. She coughed, and could feel some warmth coming up with her.  
  
//SERENITY!?// Ankh began racing to her, about to race out- But with one last act, she pushed her yami back, back into the depths of her own mind.  
  
***  
  
"Oh, Serenity darling! How could this happen?!" Ankh cried out. She was outside of their body, crying, trying to unlodge Serenity's unconsious body from the grate. This looked really difficult, seeing as each spike was like an arrowhead, almost impossible to get out. Ankh chewed on her lip. She had to work fast, because Serenity being herself in essence, she would soon loose the energy to make this astral projection. Closing her eyes, she yanked Serenity's body of the rail. She sticky warmth of her aibou's blood dyed her linen attire red.  
  
She suddenly had an aching pain through her arm- One of Serenity's injuries. She REALLY had to hurry. Dragging her unconsious aibou's body out to the street. A lone man was walking by, seemingly carefree. His face suddenly contorted on seeing Ankh.  
  
"What- what happened?!" He sputtered, running his hand through his hair- Which was fading with age.  
  
"Just take her- To the hospital. . . Please. . ." Ankh whispered, as the wounds that had gutted through Serenity appeared in her.  
  
"Who are you?" He asked, taking Serenity's arm. Ankh just gave him a faint smile, then dissapeared.  
  
***  
  
Pain. She was feeling a lot of that these days. But Serenity for some reason was increasingly happy. Not only was her faithful dog, Sakura, fine, and at the moment resting at her blanket covered feet, but also, unlike what she had been thinking the night of a week yesterday, Mokuba Kaiba was alive and well. To be perfectly honest, Mokuba was doing better than she, with only a slight concussion. But she hadn't seen either of the two Kaibas.  
  
//Don't worry hun. They are bound to visit you.// Ankh whispered.  
  
/I know. I just. . . Miss them./  
  
//I know. I know.//  
  
She really had nothing at all to do. Her mum had come for a five minute visit, and the Nurse had helped her call Joey, but otherwise, no one really knew about her condition. She was twirling one red rose through her fingers- The only thing her Mom could afford buy her. Serenity smiled, and tapped the rose on her chin. She had decided it would be useless to put it in a vase, because she wouldn't be able to see it anyway.  
  
"You look just like a picture." someone announced. Serenity wrinkled her brow.  
  
"I'm sorry?" she asked.  
  
"You look just like a picture," the person repeated, sounding throughly aggravated at having to repeat himself. A slight blush raised across her cheeks as she realized who it was.  
  
"Do I really?" She asked coyly, while batting her eyelashes in the direction of his voice and grinning.  
  
"You know, for someone who's just been gutted through, I'd think you'd be a bit more melancholy." Seto stated. Serenty smiled, and twirled the stem around in her fingers.  
  
"I have a lot to smile about," she replied softly. "And you know, you didn't sound like yourself, calling me a picture." Serenity stated.  
  
"I can tend to be out of character at times. Not all times, understand." He sighed, plopping down in an arm chair, oppisite her bed.  
  
"That's alright." Serenity again smiled. "I adore you weither you sound like an amesia case or you are your regular old grumpy, stick-in-the-mud self." After this, a strained silence hung in the air. Maybe she shouldn't have said, 'adore' in terms to their 'relationship'.  
  
"So, why are you so happy anyways?" He asked, for some reason uncomfortable in the seemingly sticky silence. Which was again, for him, rather out of character.  
  
"I just found out that Mokuba Kaiba was NOT kiddnapped, as I thought he had been." Serenity replied, waving and arm toward the television. A reporter was telling about the tragic incident about the most wealthy CEO in Japan's little brother having almost been kidnapped. "They don't really say WHY the kiddnapping wasn't a sucsess. But that's okay, I suppose. Though I would like some company, I never would like that much attention." Serenity shrugged.  
  
"Hmmm. . ." He replied, eyes drifting to the screen. Then it flickered, and died, and as he turned his attention back to the girl in the bed, she had the remote out, having just pressed the power button.  
  
"You don't mind, do you? It does me no good to have it on, but if you'd like, I can turn it-" Serenity began, but Seto shook his head.  
  
"I know too much of the up and coming tragdies in this world, I needn't be informed of any others, thank you." Serenity pondered this for a second, then nodded.  
  
"How is Mokuba?" She asked, and the eagerness in her voice told him that she had started all that small talk to actually softly bring his little brother to the surface. Pushing this fact aside, he reported on Mokuba's well being.  
  
"Just fine. A little too fine, actually. He's jumping off the walls."  
  
"Sounds just like him." Serenity stated with a soft smile. "How did he get out anyway?"  
  
"I came and got him." Seto said quietly. He felt mutely ashamed about not staying and helping her out, but when there is even a small sliver of a chance that Mokuba could be harmed, he would always help him first. But it's true that he could have told her, so she could have gotten out, instead of crawling around on the ground for two hours, weakly calling out for him.  
  
"Hmm." Serenity was silent for a second. "So those two thuds were you. . ."  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
"Nothing. . ." Serenity replied. "I'm glad you helped him." Silence again hung over, and seemingly reading his mind, she admitted, "Don't feel bad. Mokuba was a higher priority at the time. Or at least it could be assumed so. I mean, I wasn't unconsious, now was I?"  
  
"Well. . ."  
  
"Not while you were there, at least." Serenity finished. Silence again prevailed, and Sakura stared at Seto for a moment, before nudging her owner in the knee.  
  
"So, how are you feeling?" he asked. He would ask just about anything to break the silence.  
  
"Alright, I think. Confused, maybe. But alright."  
  
"Confused?"  
  
"Yeah. I'm feeling something I really can't put my finger on." Serenity said slowly, as if not sure she should say what she was about to say. "But- I think now. . . I know what it is. It's love."  
  
Silence. More silence.  
  
"Seto Kaiba, owner of Kaiba corp, the one person my brother thinks is worse than the devil, I believe I am in love with you." Serenity stated firmly, staring off at the television. "No, I don't believe, I know. Even though you can't always show it, you are one of the sweetest, most caring people I know." Serenity continued, "Caring. . . To the ones you hold dear. Like Mokuba. I have never seen someone love someone else so. You remind me of me and my Nii-sama." Serenity gave a soft smile, and Kaiba twitched. He wished she hadn't said that- When she said Nii-sama, It was almost like she was talking about him. "And I do love you. I don't care if you don't feel the same, and if you think I'm a crazy fan girl of your money. You could go bankrupt, and I would still love you."  
  
Silence. More silence. Serenity closed her eyes, as if keeping tears from spilling out. She squeezed the rose as hard as possible, and didn't even flinch at the pain.  
  
"Ashiteru. . . Matsudai." She finished, slowly.  
  
"Ahisteru. . . Matsudai." He repeated, meaning every word. Serenity's beautiful face, and yes, it was beautiful, though her had never take the time to notice, lit up like a beacon, and she softly pulled a rose petal of the flower she was holding. He saw little dots of blood pooling from where the sharp thorns had pierced her skin. She tenderly dropped it on the floor, as a tear streaked down her cheek.  
  
***  
  
The End* (Or IS IT?)  
  
Shimmie: *Snickers*  
  
Silvie: No fair! What happens?  
  
Shimmie: *Snickers*  
  
Silvie: *begins to pout* Well, that's ruuuuude.  
  
Shimmie: There is a sequel on the wings! I swear there is! ^____^  
  
Silvie: . I hate you.  
  
Shimmie: I know! ^0^  
  
Muses: . . .  
  
BE PREPARED FOR THE SEQUEL!!!! KISSES TO ALL MY LOVELY REVIEWERS! AND BROWNIES! 


End file.
